India: Ladakh Photo Gallery @ National Geographic Traveler

from November/December 2006

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India: Ladakh Photo Gallery
Photographs by Steve McCurry Text by Jayne Wise

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young Buddhist monk gets a head shave at Hemis Gompa, one of Ladakh's biggest monasteries. Ladakh largely follows the Tibetan Mahayana model of Buddhism, but the religion has Indian roots: The prince who became Buddha spent his childhood in northern India and Nepal. As a young man he rejected the wealth he'd been born into, setting out on a quest for enlightenment and nirvana that took him through eastern India. He is said to have died in Kushinagar, south of India's border with Nepal.

Read more about India in "Passages Through India," a special section in the November/December 2006 issue of National Geographic Traveler.

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