Explore Ladakh's Cultural Heritage and
History on a Textile Adventure
A vital stop for Silk Road merchants and traders, Ladakh, India, is home to weavers, painters, dyers, and designers that continue the region's rich, cosmopolitan cultural heritage. In late Spring of 2024, we invite you to join trip facilitator/textile designer Laura Kozaitis, and cultural anthropologist Monisha Ahmed on a journey into Ladakh that transcends the standard tourist experience.
In partnership with the Ladakh Arts and Media Organization, this uniquely curated adventure provides hands-on, immersive learning opportunities with local artisans, livestock herders, conservationists, and religious leaders. Explore ancient temples, royal halls, nomadic camps, and the bustling bazaar filled with handmade garments, furnishings, and liturgical items created from an array of fibers.
Trip Dates: Summer 2025, Date TBD
Trip Cost: from 3,900
Tour Leaders and Highlights
Trip Leader, Laura Kozaitis, and our Textile Historian, Monisha Ahmed, will share their knowledge and passion for Himalayan culture, weaving a tapestry of experiences and stories that amplify the role of fabrics in the region's diverse cultural heritage. The strong relationships with our community partners and hosts facilitate personal connections with Ladakhis.
Learning Highlights:
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History of the Silk Road and its connection to Ladakh's region, textile production and trade.
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Immerse in Ladakhi culture at centuries-old monasteries, vibrant villages, multi- generational homes, traditional markets and crafts workshops, including a hands- on Pashmina Workshop!
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Spend the day with the Changpa community, nomadic pastoralists. and learn about
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their daily lives and valued livestock, the Pashmina goat, known locally as the Changra.
Laura Kozaitis
Trip Leader, Laura Kozaitis, is the CEO of Silk Road Spaceship, the slow-fashion website featuring hand-dyed silk accessories and gorgeous product collaborations with Himalayan designers. Her passion for Himalayan art and heritage began in 1989 when she first traveled to the region to study with a master Ladakhi thangka painter. Four years later, she co-founded the Siddhartha School Project with her Smith College professor, Khensur Rinpoche Lobzang Tsetan, a Ladakhi Buddhist monk. She is thrilled to share Himalayan culture and the beauty of Ladakh with visitors and looks forward to taking this group to the region.
Monisha Ahmed
Textile Expert and Co-Founder of Ladakh Arts & Media Organisation, Monisha Ahmed, is an independent researcher who has been visiting and writing about material culture, mainly the textile arts, in Ladakh since 1987. Monisha received her doctoral degree in Social Anthropology from Oxford University in 1997. Her dissertation developed into the book Living fabric - weaving among the nomads of Ladakh Himalaya (Orchid Press, 2002), which received the Textile Society of America's R L Shep award in 2003 for best book in ethnic textile studies. Monisha will share with you her insights into fiber production and weaving, trade textiles and the social and symbolic world around textiles which the Ladakhis inhabit.
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