Rudok

Rudok is a small town on the Ladakh frontier of Tibet. Rudok is picturesquely situated on the side of a hill standing isolated in the plain near the east end of Lake Pangong in Ladakh. Historically an integral part of Ladakh, it is also greographically and culturally a part of Ladakh. The houses are built in tiers, whitewashed and walled in. At the top of the hill are a large palace and several monasteries painted red. About a mile away from the foot of the hill is another monastery. Rudok is about 13,300 feet above sea-level, and the greatest altitude on the route connecting it with Lbasa at the pass of Mariom la (the water-parting between the Brahmaputra and the Sutlej) is 15,500 feet. The winter climate of Rudok and of all the towns of the Tsangpo basin, owing to the intense dryness of the air and the light fall of snow, seems to be bracing and exhilarating rather than severe. The thermometer never approaches the minimum record of Puetra (in the same latitude and at half the absolute elevation), according to the observations of native surveyors.