Ladakh Literature Festival

Aanchal Malhotra

Aanchal Malhotra is an oral historian and author of Remnants of A Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory, shortlisted for the British Academy’s 2019 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, the Hindu Lit for Life Non Fiction Prize, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize and the Shakti Bhatt First Book prize. She is the co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory and currently lives in Delhi.

Aanchal Malhotra

Alice Albinia

Alice Albinia is an English journalist and author whose first book, Empires of the Indus, won several awards. Albinia was born in London and read English Literature at Cambridge University and South Asian History at SOAS. In between, she worked for two years in Delhi as a journalist and editor

Alice Albinia

Amrita Mahale

Amrita Mahale is the author of the novel Milk Teeth, which was shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award and longlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature and the Tata LitLive First Book Award in 2019. Her writing has appeared in Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Scroll, and Himal Southasian. Amrita was trained as an aerospace engineer at IIT Bombay and Stanford University and currently works at an applied research lab focused on AI for social good.

Amrita Mahale

Anmol Tikoo

Anmol is an educator and film-maker, most recently at the United World College, Pune, where he also taught philosophy and film courses. He has worked on the cinematography of Hindi, Marathi, and international film projects, and helped write and produce a documentary on film cultures of India.

Anmol Tikoo

Anukrti Upadhyay

Anukrti Upadhyay has post-graduate degrees in Literature and Management, and a graduate degree in Law. She writes fiction and poetry in both English and Hindi, which have been printed by Rajpal and Sons, and Harper Collins. A third novel in English, Kintsugi, is out from HarperCollins in July 2020. A short novel in Hindi is to be published in September 2020 as well. Currently she is working with Wildlife Conservation Trust, a conservation think-tank. She is an Indian national, and divides her time between Bombay and Singapore.

Anukrti Upadhyay

David Michie

David Michie is the internationally best-selling author of The Dalai Lamaâ€™s Cat series, and The Magician of Lhasa, as well as the non-fiction titles Buddhism for Busy People, Buddhism for Pet Lovers, Mindfulness is Better than Chocolate and Hurry Up and Meditate. His new spiritual thriller, The Secret Mantra, which explores the healing power of meditation, has just been published (October 2020). In 2015 he established Mindful Safaris to Africa, combining wildlife viewing and meditation sessions in journeys to unexplored places, outer and inner.

David Michie

Dr. Rajeev Patnaik

Dr. Rajeev Patnaik did his Ph.D from Panjab University, Chandigarh and Post-Doctoral fellowships from Germany and France. He has contributed towards the understanding of evolution of Indian fossil mammals and their palaeoecology including geological context of primate/human evolution, and the impact of climate change on evolution. He and his colleagues discovered new hominoids/primates, ostrich-like eggshells, new pelican and darter fossils from the Siwaliks; Late Cretaceous rice from central India; and Miocene mammals from the Baripada Beds of Odisha. He has done field and lab work in Egypt, USA, Germany, France, Australia and Japan. He has published over 100 papers and one book of his in press by Springer. He has received 18 National and International grants. In 2016 he was awarded the prestigious National Geoscience Award by the Honourable President of India and in 2019 was elected as a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Rajeev Patnaik

Garry Weare

Garry Weare has a long standing relationship with the Indian Himalaya. His experiences are reflected in his Trekking in the Indian Himalaya as well as his travel narrative A Long Walk in the Himalaya an account of his epic five-month trek from the source of the Ganges to Kashmir. He has also wriiten Kashmir â€“ A Journey through History that offers a highly readable account of Kashmirâ€™s rich and sometimes chequered cultural history. Garry is a former director of the adventure travel company World Expeditions; a founding director and Deputy Chair of the Australian Himalayan Foundation; Honorary Secretary (Australia) Himalayan Club and Fellow Royal Geographic Society.

Garry Weare

Helena Norberg

Helena is a pioneer of the new economy movement and recipient of the Alternative Nobel prize, the Arthur Morgan Award and the Goi Peace Prize for contributing to â€œthe revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.â€ She is author of the inspirational classic Ancient Futures, and Local is Our Future (2019). She is co-author of Bringing the Food Economy Home and From the Ground Up, and producer of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness. Helena is the founder and director of Local Futures and The International Alliance for Localisation, and a founding member of the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture, the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network.

Helena Norberg

James Crowden

James Crowden is an author and poet living in Somerset. Born in Plymouth in 1954, he was raised on the western edge of Dartmoor. In 1972 he joined the army and served in Cyprus travelling widely in Eastern Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and north west India. In 1976-77 he spent a winter on the northern side of the Himalaya, in the remote Zangskar Valley in Ladakh. It was from this experience that he developed a lifelong interest in agriculture and Buddhism

James Crowden

Jane Borges

Jane Borges is a Mumbai-based journalist. She writes on books, heritage and urban planning for Sunday mid-day, the weekend edition of mid-day newspaper. Her debut novel, Bombay BalchÃ£o, was published in November 2018 by Westland Books. The book was recently longlisted for the Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival award. In 2011, she co-authored Mafia Queens of Mumbai: Stories of Women from the Ganglands with S. Hussain Zaidi, which was shortlisted for The Economist Crossword Book award. Her fiction has been featured in the 2013 New Asian Writing Short Story Anthology and The Hindu BusinessLine's BLInk magazine.

Jane Borges

Janet Rizvi

Janet Rizvi, a freelance writer, and researcher was brought up in Scotland and graduated Ph.D. in history from Cambridge. Married to a Government officer, she spent many years in Jammu and Kashmir, among the most memorable of which were the two years in Ladakh. Her book Ladakh, Crossroads of High Asia has been continuously in print for nearly 40 years. She is also the author of the highly praised Trans-Himalayan Caravans: Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh. As well as writing the chapter â€œWoven Textilesâ€ in The Crafts of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh (ed. Jaya Jaitley), she co-authored with Monisha Ahmed, Pashmina, the Kashmir Shawl and Beyond which has been recognized as an authoritative study of the Kashmir shawl, with particular reference to its raw material pashm, & the Ladakh connection.

Janet Rizvi

John Bruna

John Bruna, author of The Wisdom of a Meaningful Life and the Essential Guidebook to Mindfulness in Recovery, is a counselor, educator, former Tibetan Buddhist monk, and current mindfulness trainer. John was ordained and trained as a Buddhist monk in the Tibetan tradition. In 2012, John returned to life as a layperson and has embarked upon a personal mission to be of benefit to others by drawing from his education and training, as well as his compelling life story and personal experiences, to illustrate with clarity the skillful application of the wisdom teachings that reduce suffering and increase well-being and the joy of a meaningful life. Currently, John is the co-founder of the Mindful Life Program and director of the Way of Compassion Foundation.

John Bruna

John Keay

John Keay has written major histories of India, China and the East India Company, encyclopedias of Scotland and London, and about twenty other non-fiction titles including two volumes on Himalayan exploration. Several have been in print for over twenty years; four have been reissued by the Folio Society. His latest is The Tartan Turban: The Search for Alexander Gardner (2017). The next, a study of the greater Himalayan region, will be published in 2021. Long resident in Scotland, he reviews for the Literary Review and the Times Literary Supplement. In 2009 he was awarded the Royal Society of Asian Affairs’ Sykes Medal and in 2019 was given an Honorary Doctorate by the University of the Highland and Islands.

John Keay

Jono Lineen

Dr Jono Lineen is a curator at the National Museum of Australia. He is a bestselling author, former international ski racer and explorer. Jono was the first person to traverse the Western Himalayas alone, walking solo 2700km from Pakistan to Nepal. His research interests are in the relationship between walking, creativity and storytelling. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the â€˜Troublesâ€™ and spent almost 20 years traveling the world working as a forester, geologist, ski racer, deep sea fisher, mountain guide, humanitarian relief worker and writer. His books include River Trilogy, Into the Heart of the Himalayas and Perfect Motion.

Jono Lineen

Jyotsna Mohan Bhargava

Jyotsna Mohan worked with NDTV for fifteen years and rose to the position of senior news anchor and senior news editor. She is a columnist for newspapers and digital publications in India and abroad. She has authored the book Stoned, Shamed, Depressed: An explosive account of the explosive lives of India's Teens.

Jyotsna Mohan Bhargava

Karuna Ezara Parikh

Karuna is a poet and a writer, former television anchor, and model known widely for her activism. She studied Journalism, Film, and Broadcasting at Cardiff University. Her writing has featured in Vogue, Wire, Outlook, Tehelka, FirstPost, Open, and Lonely Planet. She lives in Calcutta currently with her husband and their dog. The Heart Asks Pleasure First is her first novel.

Karuna Ezara Parikh

Monisha Ahmad

Monisha Ahmed is co-founder and Executive Director of the Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO). She is an independent researcher, writer, and curator, with a focus on the histories, practices, and material culture of Ladakh. Her doctoral degree from Oxford University developed into the book Living fabric – Weaving among the Nomads of Ladakh Himalaya (Orchid Press, 2002), and received the 2003 Textile Society of America’s R L Shep award for best book in the field of ethnic textile studies. She has co-edited Ladakh – Culture at the Crossroads (Marg Publications, 2005), collaborated on Pashmina – The Kashmir Shawl and Beyond (Marg Publications 2009, 2017), and published several articles on textile arts of Ladakh, as well as other parts of the Himalayan World, including four in The Encyclopaedia of World Dress and Fashion (Berg Publishers, 2010). Monisha has curated exhibitions ‘thread by thread’ (2015), and ‘Between Land & Sky – Woven Gold From the Glaser Tradition’ (2019).

Monisha Ahmad

Neptune Srimal

Neptune Srimal is a professor of Geology in the Florida International University in Miami, Fl. He hails from Kolkata where he was brought up and completed his post-graduate studies. He started his professional life as a geologist in the Himalayan Geology Division of the Geological Survey of India. Neptune led many geological expeditions to all corners of Shyok, Nubra and Karakoram during the 70s and 80s and mapped the entire region under Indian control north of the Indus river. He did his PhD in geology from the University of Rochester on the tectonics of the Ladakh-Karakoram. He plans to continue his research in Ladakh, Arunachal and in Kumaun and Garhwal in collaboration with the Geological Survey of India.

Neptune Srimal

Nigel Huges

Nigel Huges is a professor of geology in the Deptartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. He has long worked on the geology of the Himalaya and has completed scientific monographs on the Cambrian aged fossils of Ladakh and Spiti. He is also active in geoscience outreach in the subcontinent, being the author stories for children of the subcontinent that introduce geological concepts.

Nigel Huges

Pranay Lal

Pranay Lal is a biochemist by training and works for a non-profit organization on public health. His first book, Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent, won the best non-fiction debut award at the Tata Lit Fest 2017, the best book award at the Delhi Book Fair 2017, The Hindu's best non-fiction 2017, and was named as 50 must-read books on India by Mint Lounge in August 2020.

Pranay Lal

Raghu Karnad

Raghu is a journalist and writer, and a recipient of Yale's 2019 Windham Campbell Prize for Non-fiction. He is the former chief of bureau at theWire.in, and the author of Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War.

Raghu Karnad

Rehana Munir

Born and raised in Bombay, Rehana graduated in English literature from St. Xavierâ€™s College, Mumbai, and earned her MA at Mumbai University. She ran a bookshop in the mid-2000s and edited cricket websites for BCCI a few years later. An independent writer for many years now, she has a weekly humor column in HT Brunch, and a cinema column in Arts Illustrated magazine. Her debut novel 'Paper Moon' was published by HarperCollins India in November 2019. She is currently at work on her second novel.

Rehana Munir

Resh Susan

Resh Susan is a freelance writer who writes primarily on books and culture. She runs The Book Satchel. You'll find her cooking up stories or searching the internet for food pictures if she isn't engrossed in a book.

Resh Susan

Shaheen Bhatt

"Shaheen Bhatt is a screenwriter and author of the bestselling book Iâ€™ve Never Been (Un)Happier. Shaheen is also the founder of Here Comes The Sun - a mental health awareness campaign to help address the stigma and discrimination around depression and anxiety. Through Here Comes the Sun, Shaheen has also collaborated with Books on Toast to create the Shiny Happy Book Club, a book club that aims at combining reading with mental health and using reading as a therapeutic tool."

Shaheen Bhatt

Shantam Seth

Shantum Seth is an ordained Dharmacharya (Dharma Teacher) in the Buddhist Mindfulness lineage of the Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and teaches in India and across the world. He has been leading pilgrimages â€˜In the Footsteps of the Buddha' and other multi-faith, educational, cultural, spiritual and transformative journeys across diverse regions of India and Asia since 1988.

Shantam Seth

Shubhangi Swarup

Shubhangi Swarup is a writer and educator. Latitudes of Longing, her debut novel, was a bestseller soon after its release in India. It won the Tata Lit Live prize for debut fiction, and was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Indian literature, and longlisted for the DSC Prize. She was awarded the Charles Pick Fellowship for creative writing at the University of East Anglia, and has also won awards for gender sensitivity in feature writing. She lives in Mumbai.

Shubhangi Swarup

Steve Alter

Steve is the author of twenty books of fiction and non-fiction. He was born in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, and much of his writing focuses on the Himalayan region, where he continues to live and work. His honours include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright award. His recent memoir, Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime, received the Kekoo Naoroji Award for Himalayan Literature in 2015. His most recent work of fiction, In e Jungles of the Night: A Novel About Jim Corbett, was shortlisted for the DSC South Asian Literature Award in 2017. He was a writer-in-residence at MIT for ten years, before which he directed the writing programme at the American University in Cairo. He is the founding director of the Mussoorie Mountain Festival.

Steve Alter

Supriya Nair

Supriya Nair is editor, Fifty Two and co-founder of the media company All Things Small. She writes a books column for Mumbai Mirror and lives in Mumbai

Supriya Nair

Taran Khan

Taran N. Khan is a journalist and writer based in Mumbai. She grew up in Aligarh and was educated in Delhi and London. She has published widely in India and internationally, including in Guernica, Al Jazeera, The Caravan and Himal Southasian and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Jan Michalski Foundation and Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. From 2006 to 2013, Khan spent long periods living and working in Kabul. Shadow City is her first book.

Taran Khan

Tony Wheeler

An Asia â€˜hippie trailâ€™ trek led to the creation of Lonely Planet and the New York Times to describe Tony as â€˜the trailblazing patron saint of the worldâ€™s backpackers and adventure travelers.â€™ Since Tony departed Lonely Planet thereâ€™s been the Planet Wheeler Foundationâ€™s developing world projects and, until the coronavirus pandemic interrupted things, lots of travel to keep him busy.

Tony Wheeler

Venerable Samten La

Venerable Gyalten Samten (Barkha Madan) is a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist order. Her first encounter with a Buddhist monastery was at the age of ten at Rumtek, Sikkim. The pristine beauty of the monastery combined with a playful interaction with young monks gave rise to a spontaneous wish to live there. However, her pleas were labelled â€˜whimsicalâ€™ and duly dismissed. In the spring of 2001, Barkha met His Holiness, the Dalai Lama at Dharamshala. Deeply influenced by the compassionate actions of His Holiness and the Buddhist philosophy particularly the concept of Bodhicitta she enrolled in a Buddhist philosophy course. In 2012 embracing her inner calling she decided to give up her film career. Following the advice of Venerable Zopa Rinpoche, she took ordination by the great Tibetan master His Eminence, Venerable Choden Rinpoche at Sera Jey Monastery, Karnataka, India. Since then she has spent a great deal of time engaged in meditation retreats, study, centre management and as a meditation facilitator at various Dharma Centres in India and USA.

Venerable Samten La

Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi

The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi Rinpoche is President & CEO of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a center dedicated to inquiry, dialogue, and education on the ethical and humane dimensions of life. The Center is a collaborative and nonpartisan think tank, and its programs emphasize responsibility and examine meaningfulness and moral purpose between individuals, organizations, and societies. Six Nobel Peace Laureates serve as The Center’s founding members and its programs run in several countries and are expanding. Venerable Tenzin's unusual background encompasses entering a Buddhist monastery at the age of ten and receiving graduate education at Harvard University with degrees ranging from Philosophy to Physics to International Relations. He is a Tribeca Disruptive Fellow and a 2018 Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Venerable Tenzin serves on the boards of number of academic, humanitarian, and religious organizations. He is the recipient of several recognitions and awards, and received Harvard’s Distinguished Alumni Honors for his visionary contributions to humanity.

Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi

Vinay Sitapati

Vinay is a political scientist, lawyer and journalist. He has a PhD from Princeton University, and degrees from Harvard University and the National Law School, Bengaluru. His first book, Half Lion, was a bestselling biography of P.V. Narasimha Rao. Sitapati teaches at Ashoka University near Delhi. His latest book 'Jugalbandi' is a history of the BJP Before Modi.

Vinay Sitapati

William Dalrymple

An acclaimed historian and a prolific writer, William Dalrymple is an award winning author of multiple books, including In Xanadu, City of Djinns, From the Holy Mountain, The White Mughals, The Last Mughal, Return of a King, The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire. He has won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the French Prix d’Astrolabe, the Wolfson Prize for History, the Scottish Book of the Year Award, the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, the Asia House Award for Asian Literature, amongst others. He is also a founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

William Dalrymple

Zeeny Jhelumi

Zeeny is a children's author and storyteller, trained from the International school of storytelling, Sussex, teacher trainer and an editor of a Children's publishing House in New Delhi. She has been awarded with the National Women Achievers' Excellence award by the Ministry of Social Justice in 2019.

Zeeny Jhelumi

Ajaz Hussain Munshi

Social and Cultural Activist and Curator of Munshi Aziz Bhat Museum of Silk Route and Central Asian Trade located in the heart of Kargil Town, working with many social and culture organizations since last 15 years. He has co-authored a book titled A Travel into the History Purik by Dr Dieter Schuch of the International Institute of Himalayan and Buddhist Studies, Andiest Switzerland, Castles, Antiquities, Documents of Purik. He is a member of the International Association of Ladakh Studies and National Museum Association of India.

Ajaz Hussain Munshi

Bashir Ahmad Wafa

Ranked amongst the versatile poets and writers of Balti language and literature not only in Ladakh but in Baltistan Bashir Ahmad Wafa has been contributing enormously towards Balti language and has authored a collection of poems titled Brakshang and Gardishi Skurbu- a collection of Balti short stories. In the capacity of an amateur theatre expert and artist Bashir has participated in many national level theatre festivals. He has represented Kargil in different cultural and literary events and conferences at State and National level and actively associated with organizations like the Association of Baltis of Himalayan Ladakh and Territories of Indus and has also worked as a broadcaster at the All India Radio (AIR), Kargil.

Bashir Ahmad Wafa

Dr. Diskit Angmo

Disket Angmo has a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she completed a thesis on ‘Gesar Epic Tradition in Inner Asia. A case study of Ladakhi version of Ling rGyalam Kesar. Before that Disket has an MA in East Asian Studies with specialization in Chinese Studies from Delhi University and an MPhil in Chinese Studies where her discussion focused on A study of protest and uprising in Tibet from 1959 till present, which was published in The Tibet Journal.

Dr. Diskit Angmo

Dr. Rigzin Chodon

Rigzin Chodon is Research Associate at the Ladakh Arts And Media Organization, Leh. She received her doctoral degree from the Centre for English Studies; School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 2018. Her research focuses on the study of the history of print media with focus on the Moravian Missionary newspapers in Ladakh and Kyelang in Lahoul in the early 20th Century. She is part of the editorial team for the International Association for Ladakh Studies (2016 onwards); a Sahapedia Projects Fellow 2017-18 ( Film on the ‘Wedding practices of Rong Chu rGyud’ (2018) and recipient of the Ila Dalmia Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art Research Grant (2018-19). Apart from publishing articles in national as well as international journals, she writes for Stawa, a monthly magazine and has also made presentations on her research at various local, national as well as international conferences.

Dr. Rigzin Chodon

Dr. Tsering Chorol

Dr. Tsering Chorol is currently working with the education department of Leh, Ladakh as a Hindi lecturer. She did her PhD from the school of languages at JNU, New Delhi. She has translated a Ladakhi novel to Hindi as part of her research. Her interests lie in the study of the literature of Hindi and Ladakhi. She likes writing short stories in Hindi.

Dr. Tsering Chorol

Kacho Gulzar Hussain Khan

Born in a literary family of the lineage of prominent historian and writer of Ladakh Kacho Sikander Khan Sikander, Social and Cultural Activist, writer and historian Kacho Gulzar Hussain Khan has contributed to a great deal towards the preservation and documentation of the ancient folklore including the Kesar Saga, history and culture of Ladakh in general and Kargil in particular has wrote numerous research oriented papers and articles on varied subjects. He has also participated in different seminars, conferences and other literary events at different levels and is presently working on the translation and compilation of Ladakhi folk songs.

Kacho Gulzar Hussain Khan

Manjeet Singh

Retired Head Master of Education Department with 37 years of service in remote places of Kargil, Manjeet Singh is a social activist and Member of Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee Kargil and a known senior citizen of the Sikh Community in Kargil District. He has also been actively involved in various social activities during his service period and continues to contribute towards public welfare activities.

Manjeet Singh

Morup Namgyal

A renowned Ladakhi folk singer, dramatist, narrator, folklore exponent and lyricist, who had earlier served as Music composer of All India Radio, Leh. Namgyal is a cult figure not only in Ladakh but also in the adjoining Himalayan regions. He was conferred with prestigious National Award, “Padma shree” by Government of India in the year 2004 in recognition to his outstanding contribution to the Nation. Morup Namgyal worked on a documentation project of folk songs and Kesar Saga of Ladakh with Ladakh Cultural Academy.

Morup Namgyal

Muhammad Issa Sabiri

A language crusader, besides writing in Urdu and Purgi, he vociferously advocates the recognition of Purgi Language. He has researched in depth about the various aspects of the language and a suitable script for it. Occupied with a trying life along with various problems facing the language like the confusion surrounding a proper script, he could not publish his writings till now. He writes short stories, poems and Ghazals and knows very well the skill of replying to a verse with a verse. Equally fluent with the Nastaliq script and the Yige script, he is a teacher by profession. He is one of the go to persons in Kargil when it comes to the history of Purig language and Yige script. He is also associated with AIR Kargil as a part time Purgi News Reader and Translator.

Muhammad Issa Sabiri

Muhammad Sadiq Hardassi

A Balti historian and writer, he is a Govt. Teacher by profession. Having read most of the literature on Balti history which is available in Urdu, he wants to add to it in his own way. Sadiq Hardassi, everyone in the town would claim, is a repertoire of many of the rare eulogies and tributes written by the classic poets of Baltistan. His well acclaimed book “Balti Muhajirun ki Mukhtasar Tarikh” illustrates the history of the Balti traders from more than a century ago to the advent of independence. After visiting Baltistan a few times, he is now in the process of writing his new book about the prominent Balti writers and poets on both sides of the border. He also written numerous Radio and TV features and dramas and has also contributed as a compeer for the Balti programme Rgaskad broadcast from AIR Kargil.

Muhammad Sadiq Hardassi

Muhammad Shafi Sagar

Writing a rubayi to his teacher congratulating the teacher on clearing an exam and becoming a father kick started the literary career of Shafi Sagar. Today he is a prominent writer, poet and columnist in Dardi Sheena and Urdu. He is columnist contributing to local newspapers and journals, and has been a teacher to many of the new and emerging Sheena writers. He has till now authored three books Shina Rasmul Khat-writing system of Shina language, Shina Lok Adab-folk songs of Shina language and their Urdu translation and Baraf Pare- a collection of short stories in Urdu language. Sagar is also working with Hindi Sansthan Agra for preparation of Sheena Hindi Learners Dictionary and is also a member in the J &K Board of School Education for preparation of books in Shina language for school children. He has participated in different seminars and programmes in Leh, Kargil, Srinagar, Jammu, Delhi and Kathmandu Nepal and is a Government teacher by profession.

Muhammad Shafi Sagar

Mukhtar Zahid Badgami

A young Urdu teacher by profession he is also a singer, composer, poet and a writer. He has written a comprehensive book of historical importance of the Sheena Language titled, “Taarikh–e-Sheena Zabaan-o-Adab”. Popular across the border for his Sheena Dardi Qawallis and having released 3 audio albums of Qawallis, he is a modern day poet; well-versed in technology as much as poesy. He writes in equally well in both Urdu and Sheena. He is also associated with AIR Kargil as a radio artist and has penned around 600 episodes of an Urdu ghazal based titled Sham-e- Ghazal. Along with Shafi Sagar, Zahid is also working with Hindi Sansthan Agra for preparation of Sheena Hindi Learners Dictionary and is also a member in the J&K Board of School Education for preparation of books in Shina language for school children

Mukhtar Zahid Badgami

Namgyal Angmo

Namgyal Angmo is a 27 year old entrepreneur with a passion for collecting stories from Ladakh on unsung heroes and women empowerment. Her organization, Ladakh Academy of Excellence and Drones is dedicated to skill development, providing a free reading space in the main market and a cultural centre for dialogue on topics pertaining to societal issues. She works on translating folk songs from Ladakh.

Namgyal Angmo

Nawang Tsering Shakspo

A well-known Ladakhi writer who has worked at Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languges,Leh and was the Chief Editor and the Head of Academy, Leh for about two decades. He has represented the Academy at various International conferences. He has authored several books which include, A Cultural History of Ladakh, Kushok Bakula Rinpoche-Saint and Statement, An Insight into Ladakh. Presently, Nawang Tsering is the Director of Centre for Research on Ladakh and the Editor of Ladakhi Review Journal.

Nawang Tsering Shakspo

Padma Rigzin

Padma Rigzin is currently pursuing a PhD from IIT, Delhi. He is from the Gangzurpa family and grew up in the village of Hemisshukpachan. Like many of his generation, he has grown up experiencing the contrasts of life in Ladakh – the world of the rural areas as well as modernity. His research interests are traditional knowledge, village studies, everydayness of being Ladakhi, and interaction of Ladakh with more extensive social forces like state, nationalism, development, capitalism.

Padma Rigzin

Rev. Thupstan Paldan

He is an author of 34 books including both fiction and non-fiction, and a renowned Buddhist scholar. He has studied Buddhism in Tibet and Sri-Lanka. He has written on Ladakhi Art, Culture, Language and history. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards including Sahitya Akademi National Award (Bhasha Samman) in 2017, State Award (2006) and four times winner of the Best Book Award of J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages. In 2003 he was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award by J&K Cultural Academy. He is retired as Assistant Editor of the J&K Cultural Academy, Leh Ladakh.

Rev. Thupstan Paldan

Rev. Tsering Chospel

Rev Tsering Chospel has worked as the Editor of number of Academy’s Ladakhi Publications including the Biography of Lama Tsultim Nyima( two volumes), A Collection of Ladakhi Folk songs (three volumes) and Kesar Epic Ladakhi version, 2018. His poetry book in Ladakhi, “Gang-Shar Semskyi- Melong” won the Best Book Award of J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Langugages in the year 2009. He has represented Ladakh in various National and International events and festivals in showcasing religious mask dance and Buddhist chanting.

Rev. Tsering Chospel

Rinchen Angmo

"Rinchen Angmo Chumikchan is an Independent Journalist and also the former founding editor of Reach Ladakh Bulletin. Presently, she is a media fellow with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) New Delhi. In 2018, she was awarded the Times Women Achievers of J&K-2018. She is one of the founding members of the Press Club Leh.

Rinchen Angmo

Shri Ali Mohd

Shri Ali Mohd. is a renowned ‘Surna’ (oboe) player of Ladakh. He is retired instrumentalist of All India Radio, Leh. Being an offshoot of a royal musician, Ali Mohd has worked dedicatedly in reviving the Surma music in Ladakh - which was once on the verge of extinction - by imparting training to a number of youths. For his special talent in playing Surna, Ali Mohd. received appreciations in national and international events.

Shri Ali Mohd

Skarma Junglay

He is the founder of Speaking Stone Art Gallery located in his native village Wakha. By profession a Headmaster in Education Department Kargil UT Ladakh he writes poetry and research oriented papers in Purgi language and has presented papers among other themes, on the titles Fokar the Kingdom of Purig, Urgyan Rdzong- a Site of Spiritual Development, Basic Concept of Education and Nature and Rock Art Beauty of Ladakh. He has also got the distinction of having presented the first ever Stone Exhibition in Leh and Kargil.

Skarma Junglay

Tsering Norboo

Tsering Norboo has worked as the Editor of more than 100 editions of annual and bi-monthly book series Sheeraza brought out by Cultural Academy Leh Ladakh. He has documented about 1000 folk songs of Ladakh published in a book Ladakhi Folk Songs by Cultural Academy. Composed some 100 songs on various themes such as social evils, communal harmony, traditional values etc. He has translated short stories from English to Bhoti and did many research works related to Ladakhi history, culture and language.

Tsering Norboo

Tsering Sonam

Tsering Sonam is an established folk musician. He has acquired good skills in Ladakhi music instruments like Daman, Surna and Damnyan after his years of perseverance. He has assisted in the documentation of Ladakhi folk songs for the three-volume book set on Ladakhi Music Ladakh with Academy of Art, Culture and Languages,Leh.

Tsering Sonam

Tsewang Rigzin

Tsewang Rigzin stands out to be one of the eminent artist, poet and research scholars of Kargil District. He has contributed enormously towards the preservation and development of the local culture heritage and has been actively and rigorously involved in bringing to tight the hidden treasures of Kargil over the past many years now. He is credited with representing Kargil in many seminars at the state and National level. He is running a cultural organization namely Art and Culture Organization, Bodhkharboo known as for its quality cultural programs at the district, state a national Level. As a research scholar he has been contributing in the form of poetic compositions and scholarly papers to Ladakh Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, AIR, Doordarshan, and International Association for Ladakh Studies, Pragya, IRCD and numerous other such organizations.

Tsewang Rigzin

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