The Hemis Festival in Ladakh is just the kind of cultural interaction we like to see when touring or trekking in Ladakh.

While this festival is clearly not off the beaten path — you can get tickets for prime seating — there’s a reason it’s such a prime destination.

As this wonderful post (with more photos) tells us:

The Hemis Festival is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava who founded Tantric Buddhism in Tibet. Also known as Second Buddha, the festival is of huge importance to those celebrating.

Hemis is celebrated on the 10th day of the Tibetan lunar month in the Hemis Monastery, the largest Buddhist monastery in Ladakh.

We also found this video shot from ground level: