The Himalayan village where you can see the cosmos

I'm walking downhill as evening gives way to night, transfixed by what is unfolding above. As though someone is slowly rolling a screen in a shadow puppet show, an inky blue canvas emerges, where stars pop left and right. Mouth agape, I realise that the hazy band of light stretching above me is the Milky Way.

A howl from a dog perched on a rock ledge brings me back to terra firma. I'm on Mount Digpa Ratsa Ri in the village of Hanle, where the Earth and cosmos are in close communion. Situated at 5,290m above sea level in the barren, Moon-like landscape of northern India's Ladakh region, Hanle rates "one" (the darkest) on the Bortle dark sky scale, with 270 clear nights a year. Here, locals routinely switch off the lights after sunset to reveal the nightly eye-popping displays of stars. 

Over the last few years, travellers have been drawn to Hanle not just for the jet-black skies but also for the chance to experience astronomy intimately, guided by locals who are now making the cosmos their livelihood. Since 2022, when the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDSR) was founded here – spanning 1,074 sq km, six villages, a monastery and 10 stationary telescopes – a network of homestays has flourished. Local-led stargazing expeditions unfold on rooftops, courtyards and below the dome-shaped Indian Astronomical Observatory, which houses one of the world's highest optical telescopes.

Another stellar event is Hanle's annual Star Party, held each September at the end of the brief four-month window when the village is accessible to outsiders before the harsh winter sets in. The nocturnal festival draws serious stargazers and astrophotographers from across India, who come armed with telescopes and specialised cameras for deep sky observations.

Reaching for the stars

I've just arrived from Leh, the capital of Ladakh, to explore this remote landscape. The homestay I've chosen is a modest, single-storey concrete structure with shared dorms. My Tibetan-Ladakhi hosts welcome me with tingmo, a steamed bread with dal and thupka, a soup of hand-pulled noodles.

There's little to do in Hanle while the Sun is shining, so I hitch a ride to Hanle's white-walled Buddhist monastery, perched above the valley. I look down onto the green and rusty hues of the meadows criss-crossed by glinting streams and encircled by brown, wrinkled mountains.

This pastureland wasn't always home to telescopes and stargazers. Prior to 1992 – when scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) identified Hanle's conditions as ideal for astronomy – only a handful of Changpa nomadic families lived in the area. But when the Indian Astronomical Observatory was built and astrotourism developed – bolstered by the installation of the Himalayan Chandra Telescope in 2000, followed by MACE, the world's second-largest gamma ray telescope at the IIA campus – most of the nomads settled here permanently and created a tiny yet tight knit community, explained Dorje Angchuk, the observatory's engineer-in-charge.

Soon, growing tourism from stargazers, wildlife enthusiasts and visitors to the nearby Umling La pass brought light pollution to Hanle. To restore the darkness of the night, IIA consulted with villagers, tapping dark sky reserves in the Canary Islands and Hawai'i for inspiration, and eventually founding HDSR with a focus on reducing light pollution and promoting astrotourism. Local guides received training on stars, constellations and guiding visitors.

Shruti Sharma, a marketing professional from Jodhpur, recounted her 2017 visit to Hanle on a motorbike trip through Ladakh. "The houses had switched off their lights, everyone had their equipment out, and there was excitement in the air," she told me. "When I saw the Milky Way with my naked eye, I thought, 'what is this magic?'"

Stargazing into the pitch-black night

Late one night, I find myself in astro guide Kesang Dorjey's front yard for a stargazing session with a handful of other young travellers from other parts of India, who have stopped in Hanle for a night to see its spectacular cosmic tapestry. Dorjey tries to get our attention as we line up behind the telescope. With a red laser pointer, he traces the Andromeda Galaxy and Saturn's rings. 

"The old nomads say the more time you spend in darkness, the better you can see by learning to use starlight," he said. Before electricity, the Changpa herders used the pole star to guide them down mountainsides at night.

The villagers, who practice Tibetan Buddhism, make offerings during nyi 'dzin and zla 'dzin, the solar and lunar eclipse, which are considered auspicious. Celestial bodies are also a part of local folk music; when a bride departs her home at dawn after a marriage ceremony, a song called Namlangs say karchen is sung which mentions Venus rising, explained Dorjey.

These Changpa traditions now sit alongside modern astrotourism, like IIA's Star Party – about to enter its third year. It's the opening night of the event and I have gathered on the grounds of the IIA campus with amateur astronomers and astrophotographers from all over India, who are eager to tick off their stargazing bucket list and take long-exposure photos of outer space. As darkness falls, only red LED flashlights are visible, used by astronomers to preserve night vision. Astrophotographer Dhruv Patel from Ahmedabad arrived with his initially reluctant mother Kiran, who remarked: "Even when I close my eyes, I can see stars and only stars. I feel like lying on the ground to keep watching them."

The increase in tourism in the three years since HDSR's creation has brought higher income but also concerns. "I feel a growing tension about how we will preserve Hanle with the increasing number of tourists," said Dorjey. On a June night last year, more than 100 people gathered outside his house to see the stars, which meant he had to work until 02:30. Last summer, homestay owners turned away tourists due to limited capacity.

To protect the darkness, villagers switch off lights at dusk and there is no power supply after 23:00. Many locals have also installed blackout curtains, lampshades and warm bulbs. IIA is also establishing practical measures like road delineators to keep vehicles on designated paths and plans to decentralise astrotourism across Ladakh.

"It is just like any viral story," said Angchuk. "After the sudden excitement around Hanle subsides, the number of tourists will stabilise and only serious stargazers will visit."

On my last morning, I rise before dawn to find the sky still shimmering with stars. I take in Hanle's precious dark skies one last time before catching my ride back to Leh, hoping this otherworldly village can balance sharing its celestial wonders with preserving them.

-BBC