This same mythical quality is on show in Spiti’s culture, which is by turns wonderfully serene and joltingly lurid. Our visit revealed both faces. Once, while in the Pin Valley, we were treated to a show by the Buchans, a wild troop of wandering lama acrobats who move from village to village through the winter, presenting their strange show of silk, burlesque, grotesque masks and shaman trances.

With the first of the winter snows tailing us, we then descended from the valley, gunmetal cloud rolling down through the pass we had just crossed. On the valley floor we came to the soft, quiet curves of Tabo, one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist gompas (monasteries) in the region. In style it is unusual because it does not cling to an outcrop, floating above the valley as the other main monasteries of the valley such as Key and Dhankar, huddling as they do against the altitude in whitewashed clumps with kohl-eyed windows.

We sat with the monks of Tabo, looking back up to where the cloud was now beginning to close Spiti in with the silence of snow, shutting off again this “different world within a world,” while the isolated villages awaited the arrival of the dancing lamas.

Navigation

Getting there
From New Delhi there are various train links but the most direct is to Shimla via Kalpa. From there it is an overnight bus journey via Manali to Kalpa in the Spiti Valley. To get from Shimla directly to Tabo it is a three day bus journey, or two days with a jeep and driver, with overnight stays in Sarahan and Kalpa. It is necessary for non-Indians to have an Inner Line Permit to get into Spiti, and this can be obtained in a day from the District Magistrates office in Shimla, the state capital of Himachal Pradesh, or from the sub-divisional Magistrates offices in Rekong Peo in Kinnaur District, Keylong in Lahaul District, and Kaza in Spiti District. Permits can only be given to a group of four, or more. It is not an easy journey in, and it is not for the faint-hearted.

Staying there
Most people visiting Spiti are either on jeep safari or trekking on foot, and so pitching camp in the remoter areas as they travel through. This comes with the responsibility of being in a fragile eco-system, and therefore taking out everything brought in that cannot be easily burnt down without contaminating the campsites. In the small towns of Tabo and Kaza in the Spiti Valley there is a selection of government rest houses that you need to book in to via a local agent. There are also small locally run hotels with basic comforts and a lot of valley tradition and colour.

The outer limit
The valley is very high, and if you are trekking in over any of the passes, or coming by jeep, altitude sickness (AMS) can cause problems. Ascend slowly, the recommendation if you are walking is no more than 300 metres a day once over 3,000 metres. This is hard to stick to when climbing over passes, so it is important to take rest days as and when recommended by your guides. It is never a good idea, and indeed can be fatal, to push on, when rest, or even descent, have been advised.