Zanskar , a land of "copper mountains". could easily be a setting for Shangrila. Lying beyond the Great Himalaya and accessible only by a few high passes, and then only for a few months a year, it shares a Tibet-originated, Buddhist culture with Ladakh, it eastern neighbor.



As much of the land consists of inaccessible mountains its sparse population live in three habitable valleys, the Doda, the Zanskar, and the Kurgiakh/Tsarap-Lingti.



This work is focused on the latter valley system as it formed the route down to Padam from the Shingo La, the way to the South--Lahaul, Kulu, and the sub-continental plains of India.