“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” – Rabindranath Tagore.
Hanle, (pronounced as ‘an-lay’) is not the usual choice for Ladakh bound travellers. Tucked away in the far eastern corner, about 150 kms south of the great Pangong Tso and much closer to the Tibetan border at Demchok, this high-attitude Himalayan village is as captivating sight. The landscape is straight out of the 2015 Hollywood mega hit Mad Max. The Indian Astronomical Observatory at 14, 764 ft, right above the village houses the second highest optical infrared telescope in the world (the highest is at the Atacama desert in Chile at 5640 feet). The telescope is monitored
by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bangalore and is equipped to function even in the sub-zero temperatures of the cold and harsh winter of the Changthang plateau. The azure of the blue sky, the clear streams that flow off the river Indus and the Hanle river make the landscape visually stunning. The 400-year-old Gonpa, sits like a crown jewel on the entire canvas of this fascinating landscape.