Indian Himalayas Chamba Camp Cmangpa tribe cashmere wool kashmir goats

There’s something extraordinary about flying from frantic Delhi to remote Leh, the compact capital of Ladakh in northern India. Located in the vast and endless Himalayas, at a height of 3,500 metres, it is one of the highest cities in the world; dusty and dry for much of the year; extremely hot when the sun is out but freezing and crispy cold at night.

We were there to visit Chamba Camp near the Thiksey Gompa monastery, one of the region’s most important religious sites. Sleeping in tents provides an agreeable way of experiencing the surrounding landscapes, but this is no ordinary camp. Each sheathed in immaculate beige canvas, tents here come with hardwood floors and Indian antique furniture; in ways, they’re like the luxury safari camps increasingly found in parts of Africa, just without the wild beasts roaming around outside.

The camp is perfect as a base to explore the city, to go hiking, biking or rafting on the Indus river. It also serves as a base from which to meet the people of this region, be it to spend a day with the monks of the Thiksey Gompa or to venture deeper into the Himalayas in search of the Changpa nomads, aka the famous Kashmir goat herders.             

Dalai Lama in the house
Our arrival at Chamba coincides with an important announcement: “His Holiness the Dalai Lama is going to visit us,” one of the staff members tells us. “He is going to sleep in one of the simple monastery dormitories but he might come here for lunch.”

It will be the third time the Dalai Lama has visited Ladakh but the first time he will linger at Thiksey. The reason for this visit is to debate and discuss Buddha dharma with monks, nuns and students. Thousands of people are expected. It will be a grand day for Thiksey, which is by the way a gorgeous monastery, painted in the typical, natural reddish and chalky white colors so archetypal for this mountainous region.

Once checked in at the camp, we regularly spot the building, perched on a small hill, from the voluptuous gardens. From our breakfast table on the deck of the restaurant tent, I can even hear the sound of the shankha, a horn made out of a shell, during the call for prayer or before a puja, a sacred ceremony. The imminent arrival of the Dalai Lama reinforces the sense that this is a truly special place. 

Going off the grid
After visiting Tiksey Monastery, it’s time to trade our luxury tent for a simpler version. We’re moving to the remote and extreme Changtang region, a part of the Tibetan Plateau that extends from eastern Ladakh into Tibet. Known as uplands or "cold desert", it is one of India’s five listed "bio-diversity" regions, with short summers and blisteringly cold Arctic-like winters.

This area has sparse vegetation but a unique biotope. It is the traditional home of the Ladakhi-Tibetan Changpa nomads whose way of life, and supply of the world’s finest quality pashmina wool, depends on their ability to continue grazing their herds of goats on its thin, top-soiled grasslands, which sometimes stand more than 5,000 metres high.

We’re able to get in close contact with this community because we’re travelling with Belgian entrepreneur and designer Veronique Vermussche, founder of the exclusive knitwear brand Tuinch. The company’s cashmere wool is sourced from the Changpa nomads. Visiting them means going entirely off grid, just the way we like it.

End of the world feeling
We leave before dawn, our 4x4s stocked with oxygen bottles. Our final destination is the Tso Moriri Lake, one of the largest and highest bodies of water in the world. Tso Moriri is spread over an area of 120sq kilometres and lies at an altitude of 4,525 metres. Straddling a northern bank of the lake, the hamlet of Karzok is nothing more than a collection of shabby mud brick houses, most in need of serious repair. There are a couple of small shops and two guesthouses. It’s basic, but for true adventurers the views over the often crystal clear and tranquil Tso Moriri Lake are magical.

We arrive just as a small festival is taking place, and all of the Changpa nomads have come to the town to stage a singing and dancing ceremony. Everybody is dressed differently, according to their tribe and which corner of the Changtang region they come from. Some men are dressed in heavy sheepskin jackets; some women wear thick felt coats. Their silver jewellery and headwear is brightly adorned with mountain coral, Himalayan lapis and even teeth from dead animals. These simple families supply the world with the most delicate and expensive wool in the world.

Tea with the nomads
In summer, the Changpa nomads trade their winter habitat for the endless pastures of the Changtang plateau. Their goats roam the valleys and fertile riverbanks before returning home at dusk. We spend days with the nomads; when the wind picks up and freezes our hands and cameras, we join them in their warm tents for yak-milk tea and cookies we’ve bought from the only shop in the village. They are gentle and calm Buddhist people, living an extremely simple life, far away from the modern world. At night, we lie freezing in an unassuming guesthouse in town, wondering how cold it must get in the gers of our new nomadic friends.

Respecting the goat
Next to Tso Moriri Lake sits the camp of one nomadic family with hundreds of goats; summer is shearing time. In reality, the goats are not shorn; they are taken one by one onto the laps of the Changpa and gently combed to remove the best and most delicate plucks of wool. The Changpa respect these animals; they are their life, their livelihood.

After each goat is combed, it is marked with a dab of paint and released again to join the herd. Tea is drunk and more cookies are handed out. We spend the whole day with three generations of this Changpa nomadic family who live together in the same camp but in different gers. When all the wool has been collected, they sell it for a fixed price per kilo to a cooperative owned by the government.

I ask one of the nomadic ladies if she would like to live a more modern and comfortable life but the answer, given with a shy smile, is a decisive “no”. This is their life, together with their beloved goats up here in the Himalayas, far away from the mad world beyond this wild mountain range.  

How to get there
We flew with Jet Airways from London to Leh via Delhi - return fares from London Heathrow to Delhi cost from £1,647 in Première business class or £510 in economy class - and stayed at the beautiful Lodhi Hotel in between flights (from £150 a night).

A stay at the Champa Camp in the village of Thiskey, operated by the Ultimate Travelling Camp, starts from approximately £845 per night. Rates include private tour manager, chauffeur and vehicle, all ground experiences per the itinerary, as well as all meals. The camp is operational from 15th of May until the 10th of October 2017.

We travelled through India with Ampersand Travel, specialists in luxury experiences in India and beyond.

Journalist Debbie Pappyn and photographer David De Vleeschauwer venture tirelessly to the most beautiful corners of the world. Having already visited over 100 countries, they regularly write about their adventures for Telegraph Luxury and other publications internationally. The couple's own, award-winning website Classe Touriste is a visual chronicle of those global adventures.