Ladakh: A Photo Travelogue

Writer and journalist Sohini Sen’s book is a regular travelogue that certainly has an intriguing format. She writes in her introduction that Ladakh’s the kind of place which neither photo­graphs nor words can exclusively describe. So she takes the innovative route of marrying pictures and words in the form of a photographic comic book, the ‘photo travelogue’ of the title. The narrative is conventional enough, a tour of Ladakh’s main sites. The author takes in Leh town, the Indian Army’s War Memorial, Stok palace, Likir and Alchi monasteries, Phyang, Nubra Valley, Khardung La, Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri, Hemis monastery and the old summer palace of Shey. The text is in the form of conversation bubbles or thought bubbles, and there are some great shots of Ladakh’s unique trans- Himalayan landscape. The tone is humorous, and one is struck by the enduring power of Ladakh’s landscape, although as a subject, this corner of India is showing signs of tourism fatigue.