Ladakh has been called a "moonland", but this characterization fails to convey the diversity of its environmental and cultural riches that, it is hoped, are captured in this book's images.



The land is high desert, peaked by even higher mountain ranges, scored deeply by the Indus Valley and its tributaries, such as the Zanskar and Shyok. It is these sheltering valleys that allow human life and its resulting culture.



Because of its relative political and geographic isolation, it was able to hold on to the lifeways of its ancient Tibetan tradition now under such attack in the homeland.



Closed to foreigners until 1974, the photographs in this volume were made in 1975-77, and thus before much of the intrusion of tourism that has made inevitable inroads on the local scene.



As in all the volumes in the Roof of the World series, this is not a complete survey of Ladakh, but rather a record of the author's experience in it.