In 1981 I spent several months at work in Ladakh. Upon reaching Delhi I sent my film back to America with an air courier service, so that I could travel further East without exposing to heat the film that I had already taken. All of that film was lost, so I returned the following year to do it again. The two trips were very different, but I did come once more to this exact location by the same trail over the mountain on foot from Saspol. As soon as I climbed over the first ridge and Saspol was no longer visible, the sounds of the town vanished, giving way to a profound silence, broken only by the occasional cry of a large bird and the sounds of the wind.

Near Lekir Monastery, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir Province, India, August 1982, 35 mm Nikon F3, Nikkor lens, Ektachrome 200 film, Dye Transfer print 1993, ŠLuke Powell, 1996.