Hemis Festival
Biggest monastery festival. Masked dances reenact good defeating evil, trumpets made of human thigh bones, thousands of locals in their best gonchas. Book a year ahead.
Fair & Festival celebrate in Ladakh
Losar (Tibetan New Year, Dec/Jan)
When Ladakh reopens after winter. Family feasts, ibex-horn dances, archery competitions. Cold as hell, warm as home.
Sindhu Darshan
Indus River worship at 3,500 m. Politicians come, but the real show is locals singing and floating butter lamps on the river at dusk.
Ladakh Festival
Government-organised but fun, parades, polo matches, archery, cultural shows under Stok mountains. Great if you miss the monastery festivals.
Thiksay
Two days of masked dances at Thiksey monastery, ending with the symbolic killing of evil (storming of a dough effigy). Dramatic and photogenic.
Yuru Kabgyat
Moonland monastery comes alive with ancient dances, oracles in trance, black-hat sorcerers. Smaller crowds, raw energy.