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One of the least known, most remote and highest regions in the World, is home to nomadic pastorals. Living for untold centuries at altitudes as high or higher than any other humans in the World, and inhabiting one of the World's harshest environments, Tibet's nomads have been able to wrest from their in hospitable environment a reliable source of food and products for both their own needs and for those of Tibets elites. Their wool and yak tails were their the primary sources of foreign exchange for the kingdom of Dalai Lamas, and still are a major component of the economy of the Tibet autonomous region.
Nomads of Changthang use goat and sheep dung ( called rima in Tibet ) because it is more plentiful than yak dung and burns hotter. The climate is bitterly cold and windy in winter and only Drokpa ( nomads ) survive here. The western sector of the Changthang is not a vast level plain but a myriad of valley and plains of varying sizes separated by twisting mountain regions which transact the land.
Located in the central and north Tibet, the Changthang contains about 69% of Tibets land mass, spanning a thousand miles from the Indian state of Ladakh in the west to the Chinese province of Kinghai in the east.
This majestic plateau is home to millions of head of domestic livestock, and about 25% of the Tar's total population of nearly 2 million people. The nomads economy is on fuel, simple households raise sheep, goats, yak under a natural system of pastoral production. Their livestock are not fed by any specially sown fodder plants or green, and survive exclusively by grazing on range forage.
This complete reliance on the natural vegetation, however, creates difficulties because the Changthangs high altitude permits only a simple, short, growing season. in mid September, the Changthangs grasses and sedges stop growing and lie dormant. Foliage at this time dries and turns colour, cloaking the plains and mountains with a beautiful yellow rust hue.
Tourist visiting Ladakh can have glimpses of Changthang (the part under Indian control), subject to a group consisting of minimum four members, sponsored by a recognized tour operator after obtaining restricted area permit from competent authority. This area can be visited on two predefined circuits i.e. Pangong Lake Circuit and Tso Moriri and Tsokar Lake circuit
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