Though ramshackle and long deserted, the Leh Palace remains an imposing building. Standing atop a hillock, the nine-story structure, inspired by the Potala Palace, dominates the otherwise low-lying Leh 'skyline'. From its roof, visitors get a panoramic view of the windswept valley, encircled by the towering peaks of the Ladakh and Zanskar ranges. Looking out from this vantage point, the town gives off an air of continuity, its web of flat-roofed, mud-plastered houses seemingly forming an unbroken unit. But in reality, there are stark differences between the historical Old Town and the newer areas rapidly developing to accommodate the influx of tourists.
Situated on the slopes immediately below the palace, Old Leh was established during the mid-1600s, when then-King Sengge Namgyal called on well-to-do families to settle beneath his newly built fortress. Today, of the natives occupying around 200 houses, most are in some degree of disrepair. Decades of neglect have meant that this historical neighbourhood, one of the few remaining examples of Tibetan-style townships of yore, is in danger of disintegration. Indeed, the Old Town was included in a list, put together by the New York-based non-profit World Monument Fund, of the 100 most endangered sites in the world. Yet, necessary as preservation is, the consequences of the crumbling of Leh's old town go far beyond the loss of heritage; they tie directly into issues of access to good-quality housing, ecologically viable cities and a host of other resolutely modern and urban concerns.
The fact is that the old town is a centre of its inhabitants' livelihoods before it is an archival site of 17th-century Tibetan-style architecture. And, as is often the case with historical neighbourhoods in urban areas, it remains a source of relatively inexpensive housing for the urban poor. Nonetheless, or perhaps for this very reason, the old town suffers from a range of dire infrastructural problems, including lack of adequate access to drinking water, sewage systems, electricity and employment. Today, the challenge lies in finding a way to allow the area to become an evolving urban centre while also ensuring that its historical value is not lost.
An effort to strike a balance between practicality and preservation is currently underway. Led by a non-profit organisation known as the Leh Old Town Initiative (LOTI), the seeds of the endeavour go back to 2003, to a conservationist named Andre Alexander. Alexander, a German national, works with the Tibet Heritage Fund, an NGO working "within the Tibetan cultural realm" to secure the sustainable progress of communities while also keeping traditional knowledge alive. During 2003, Alexander undertook detailed assessments of the structures in the old town and of the socio-economic status of its residents. By the following year, Alexander had put together a local team to work on restoration projects, a group that has since transformed into the Leh Old Town Initiative.