High in the Himalayas, Ladakh's remote monasteries, villages, and trade outposts once formed a vital link in the ancient Silk Route, connecting Tibet, Kashmir, India, China, and Central Asia to Europe for more than a millennium. This crossroads of commerce and culture left a distinctive imprint on the region — forming a cosmopolitan society that absorbed influences while fiercely preserving its own identity simultaneously. Buddhism, Islamic traditions, ancient Tibetan animist customs, and Central Asian trade practices all coexisted in Ladakh, shaping its architecture, cuisine, and rituals into a tapestry of resilience and adaptation.
This layered history is still visible today in the barley fields that sustain Ladakh's village life, in the apricot orchards that once provisioned caravans, and in the age-old drinks like chang (a traditional alcoholic beverage consumed across the Himalayan region by Tibetan, Ladakhi, and Nepalese communities) and arak (a strong distilled alcoholic beverage made by distilling fermented wheat) that mark festivals and harvests. To experience Ladakh's culture is to understand it as both timeless and fluid, rooted in the region's mountainous terrain yet shaped by centuries of cultural exchange.
Dolkhar, a boutique hotel in Leh, Ladakh, aims to embody this duality between preservation and reinvention. Recognized for its sustainable design and community-focused ethos, Dolkhar has now expanded this philosophy to the bar, where a recent collaboration with Delhi's The Brook reimagines Ladakh's ancient, indigenous ingredients within the framework of contemporary mixology.
From August 15 to 19, Dolkhar's hyper-local, avant-garde vegetarian restaurant Tsas (meaning 'kitchen garden' in the Ladakhi language) hosted a collaboration with mixologist Yangdup Lama and his team from The Brook in Delhi. The aim was to reimagine Ladakh's indigenous ingredients within the context of modern mixology, creating a menu that would travel between Leh and Delhi while also representing the cultural ethos of the high Himalayan life.
The process began long before the teams met. The team at Tsas prepared dossiers of local ingredients — seabuckthorn berries, wild buckwheat, barley, and herbs — outlining flavour notes, origin stories, and cultural significance. Once in Ladakh, The Brook's bartenders joined the Tsas team in a series of field visits designed to anchor the project in lived tradition. In Khatpu, they observed the brewing of chang and its distilled counterpart, arak, and joined a household lunch accompanied by folk songs dedicated to alcohol. In Tsogsti, they walked through orchards, watched a traditional water mill (known as rantak or churak) grind barley, and met artisans still working with copper and brass using age-old tools.
Back at Dolkhar, these immersive encounters informed the creation of new cocktails. Seabuckthorn became the sharp, citrusy heart of a gin-based drink. Arak was transformed into a refined spirit for modern palates. Roasted barley and buckwheat appeared as subtle, earthy notes in whisky-led concoctions. The result was a cocktail menu that treated each ingredient as both flavour and story — elevating familiar traditions without stripping them of their context.
The menu created through this collaboration is now served at Tsas by Dolkhar, at Leh, Ladakh; The Brook, Gurugram; Sidecar, New Delhi; and Dream Speakeasy, ensuring that what was born in Ladakh circulates beyond it. For travellers in Leh, the Tsas terrace bar offers both a luxurious vantage point but also a rare chance to experience the region's unique landscape and heritage, distilled into liquid form.
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