Beyond the Atal Tunnel — cold desert monasteries and electric-blue glacier lakes
Lahaul Valley is a high-altitude cold desert district in northern Himachal Pradesh, opened year-round to visitors only since 2020 when the Atal Tunnel pierced the Rohtang Pass. The valley's administrative capital Keylong sits at 3,000m; the glacial Sissu Lake, ancient Trilokinath temple, and the world's highest post office at Hikkim in neighbouring Spiti make it a landscape of extraordinary remoteness.
Lahaul was a minor independent principality on the trans-Himalayan trade route between Ladakh and the Indian plains, absorbed by the Sikh Empire in the 1840s and then by British India in 1846 after the First Anglo-Sikh War. Tabo Monastery in adjacent Spiti was founded in 996 CE and holds the oldest surviving Buddhist murals and stucco sculptures in the Indian subcontinent. Until 2020, the Rohtang Pass closed Lahaul entirely every winter, isolating communities for five months annually.