Strong winds sweep across this remote village in India's Himalayan Ladakh region, but no one seems to mind. Dinner is over, yet, instead of bed, many people are gathering outside. At 14,764ft (4,500m) above sea level, Hanle is known for its exceptionally clear, dark skies.
Wrapped in thick jackets, woollen caps and gloves, tourists and visitors gather to see the Milky Way and look through telescopes at planets, the Moon and distant stars. Among them are four young women: Palzes Angmo, Tsering Dolker, Tsering Yangdol and Padma Chamchot. They are Hanle's astro-ambassadors, trained to guide visitors through the night sky.
By day, they cook meals, clean rooms and look after guests at their family-run homestays. By night, they set up telescopes, trace constellations with laser pointers and explain what visitors are seeing in the dark skies. These women - all in their late 20s - grew up watching these stars, but it was only a few years ago that they learnt to study them through a telescope.
"The sky here has always been twinkling like this," 28-year-old Dolker says. The difference today is that people travel hundreds of kilometres to see what locals have long regarded as an ordinary part of life. Hanle's remote, high-altitude location, dry air and lack of light pollution make its skies prized by astronomers.
The cold desert offers suitable observing conditions on around 260 nights a year. Hanle is also home to the Indian Astronomical Observatory, run by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, and is a major centre for astronomical research. In 2022, it became India's first Dark Sky Reserve, helping protect its pristine skies from artificial light and putting Hanle on the astronomy tourism map.
Visitor numbers have since surged: from about 3,000 a year five years ago to nearly 30,000 in 2024-25, according to government figures. As visitors grew, so did opportunities for locals. In 2022, the Ladakh administration and Indian Institute of Astrophysics trained 24 young people from Hanle and nearby villages in astronomy.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
