The snow-flecked peaks surrounding the village of Hanle are bathed in golden light as the sun sets. In the valley, 28-year-old Tsering Dolkar secures a telescope to its tripod and focuses the lens beneath a clear sky.<\/p>\n
Zipped into warm jackets the visitors gather around Dolkar, gazing upwards as the sky darkens into a breathtaking tapestry of stars. She points toward a bright star in the western sky and announces: \u201cThat is Venus.\u201d Someone says excitedly: \u201cThere\u2019s the Milky Way!\u201d<\/p>\n
At 4,500 metres above sea level, remote Hanle in Ladakh offers some of the clearest night skies on Earth and became India\u2019s first dark sky reserve in 2022. Dolkar is among 25 villagers \u2013 18 of them women \u2013 trained as astronomy ambassadors to boost Hanle\u2019s tourism and offer livelihoods to villagers. The programme is also aimed at safeguarding the conditions essential for the nearby Indian Astronomical Observatory by raising awareness of light pollution.<\/p>\n
The spectacular night sky above the Indian Astronomical Observatory attracts thousands of astro-tourists every year to experience the extreme darkness and look at the stars<\/p>\n
Tourists pay about \u00a31.70 a person to stargaze, guided by Dolkar and her fellow ambassadors, most of whom also host visitors in their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the interlocutors between the sky and the tourists,\u201d says Niruj Mohan Ramanujam, outreach head at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, the main research partner at the observatory.<\/p>\n
This programme has transformed our lives. It provides respectful, decent income while reconnecting us with our heritageKesang Dorjey, astronomy ambassador<\/p>\n
Since the 2-metre Himalayan Chandra telescope was installed by the institute in 2000, three more telescopes have been added on the mountain peak of Digpa-ratsa Ri or in its foothills, transforming Hanle into a world-class astronomy hub, and giving formerly nomadic communities a reason to settle permanently.<\/p>\n
After the government designated the area around Hanle\u2019s six hamlets as a dark sky reserve, officials instigated a project to involve the community in the management of the reserve so they could share in its benefits.<\/p>\n
The Indian Astronomical Observatory and the village of Hanle in Ladakh, high in the Himalayas<\/p>\n
The ambassadors, receive a week\u2019s training and are given access to telescopes.<\/p>\n
The astro-tourism initiative draws thousands of visitors, and homestays have expanded from a handful to 70, reviving the local economy and luring back those who had left for city jobs.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Dolkar turned her single-storey five-bedroom house into a homestay for tourists, charging about \u00a317 a night for each person, with home-cooked meals of lentils, vegetables and rice. \u201cDuring the day, I cook meals and clean the homestay, and then until midnight, I help tourists with stargazing and deep-sky exploration using my telescope,\u201d says Dolkar. On an average day, 20 tourists come for stargazing, but on busy days, she has had more than 50.<\/p>\n
Padma Chamchot, 25, says her role as an astro-ambassador has opened up opportunities for women like her. \u201cI am a college graduate, and my only options were to wait for a government job \u2013 which is difficult to get \u2013 or move to a city,\u201d she says. Chamchot now earns more in a week than she could in a month working in a city as an assistant at a travel agency, even with an annual five-month hiatus in tourism when snow closes roads to the outside world. \u201cThis is a dream job: I learn about the stars every day, support myself and my parents, and meet tourists from around the world \u2013 all while staying connected to my roots and promoting my culture,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy becoming an astro-ambassador, the universe has truly opened up for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
A group of astro-ambassadors with their telescopes wait for darkness to fall before a recent star party in Hanle<\/p>\n
The initiative is also preserving Ladakhi culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur elders relied on stars for timekeeping and navigation while traversing grazing fields with their herds, but we had completely lost touch with the skies over time,\u201d says Kesang Dorjey, a former observatory labourer who has become one of Hanle\u2019s leading astronomy ambassadors. \u201cThis programme has transformed our lives. It provides respectful, decent income while reconnecting us with science and our heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Global Dispatch<\/p>\n Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Astro-ambassador Tsering Dolkar, who also runs a homestay for tourists<\/p>\n The astro-ambassadors turned to their elders to record stories. \u201cWe\u2019re finding striking parallels between scientific findings and our elders\u2019 constellation knowledge,\u201d says Dolkar. \u201cOne elder taught me to watch for certain stars as harbingers of summer planting. Now I\u2019ve learned that this pattern is called the \u2018summer triangle\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the acting head monk of Hanle\u2019s 17th-century Buddhist monastery has signed up as an ambassador. \u201cAstronomy has long been central to Buddhist practice \u2013 monks once used stars to mark festivals and sacred timings, but that tradition has waned in modern times. I became curious to revive it,\u201d says Nawang Tsoundu, 30. \u201cBy day, I meditate and teach at the monastery; by night, I guide visitors through my telescope.\u201d<\/p>\n For the past three years, the observatory and dark sky reserve, in collaboration with local authorities, has organised an annual star party, which brings together astronomy enthusiasts from across India, allowing participants to see the facility and attend classes on dark skies and astrophotography.<\/p>\n Children from the Buddhist monastery play cricket on the road in Hanle<\/p>\n For 24-year-old Hashika Raj, an energy-systems engineer from Chennai, this year\u2019s star party was a \u201conce-in-a-lifetime opportunity\u201d. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a sky as clear as this,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n While Dorjey celebrates his village\u2019s revival and the benefits the project has brought, he is concerned that Hanle\u2019s \u201cBortle 1\u201d skies (the darkest possible), may be at risk from light pollution. Border tensions with China have brought a heavier military presence, and when the village diesel generator cuts out at 11pm, lights from the military camp continue to shine through the night. Even some tourists drive up to the observatory with headlights blazing, ignoring the dark sky reserve notices.<\/p>\n The array of stars above the Indian Astronomical Observatory \u2013 its night skies have transformed Hanle into a world-class astronomy hub<\/p>\n Dorjey says it took him time to appreciate Hanle\u2019s extraordinary skies, but with rising tourism, he fears commercial interests may overpower efforts to protect them. He has briefed military commanders on the importance of minimising light pollution \u2013 most comply, but there are frequent officer rotations.<\/p>\n \u201cI sleep uneasy,\u201d he says, \u201chaunted by the fear that these skies may be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The snow-flecked peaks surrounding the village of Hanle are bathed in golden light as the sun sets. 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