We bought these paintings of Ladakhi wildlife from our favourite shop in Leh, Ladakh.
The Union Territory of Ladakh, situated at the northern tip of India between Kashmir to the west and Tibet to the east, is home to snow leopards and some beautiful birds. L'Arabe Fenice (The Arabian Phoenix) is a wonderful shop selling Indian miniature paintings and Tibetan Thangkas. The owner, a Kashmiri who's long been resident in Leh, George Sher Ali is a relaxed and charming man who'll let you browse while he listens to the radio. If he's asleep he won't mind if you wake him!
He often commissions artist to paint local scenes like these three paintings we bought in September '24.
I'd never seen hoopoo birds until 2004 when we first stayed in Ladakh. They were nesting in the garden of the Himalaya hotel and I was captivated by the markings especially the magnificent crests. In fact they're not uncommon and quite easy to spot in Ladakh.
The first time we saw black necked cranes was in eastern Ladakh in the valley near Tangtse on the way to Pangong Tso in 2010, just after I'd fallen off my bike and been patched up at the field hospital at Tangtse with gallons on iodine and excessive yards of bandage. So much bandage I couldn't bend my elbows and had to be fed!
We saw a pair a few years later near the Yarlung Tsampo river in western Tibet and most recently in Bhutan where an injured pair were being cared for in a sanctuary. They're magnificent birds and their arrival as they migrate south at the approach of winter is regarded as a great omen of good fortune. Indeed it's not difficult to see how their non arrival would be looked upon as a bad sign.
