Karzok or Korzok is a village in the

Leh district Leh district is a district in the union territory of Ladakh, India. With an area of 45,110 ''km'2'', it is the second largest district in the country smaller only to Kutch. It is bounded on the north by Gilgit-Baltistan's Kharmang and G ...

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is located close to

Nyoma Nyoma is a principal village of southern Ladakh in India, the headquarters of an eponymous subdivision, tehsil and community development block in the Leh district.Rupshu Rupshu is a high elevation plateau and valley and an eponymous community development block in southeast Ladakh. Description Frederic Drew describes the Rupshu valley as follows: Drew states that the valleys of Rupshu continue beyond the Tso ...

region and

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

, on the shores of the

Tso Moriri Tso Moriri or Lake Moriri () or "Mountain Lake", is a lake in the Changthang Plateau (literally: northern plains) of Ladakh in India. The lake and surrounding area are protected as the Tso Moriri Wetland Conservation Reserve. The lake is at ...

lake. It is among the highest towns in the world and the highest settlement in India. Various sources give slightly different measurements of the altitude from 14,995 ft (4,570 m) to 15,075 ft (4,595 m) above sea level. The Drukpa

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Korzok Monastery Korzok, དཀོར་མཛོད་ (wylie dkor-mdzod) is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery belonging to the Drukpa Lineage. It is located in the Korzok village, on the northwestern bank of Tso Moriri (lake) in Leh District, Ladakh, India. The go ...

is located here.

History

Karzok was on the

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

n trade route until 1947 and was the headquarters of the

Rupshu Rupshu is a high elevation plateau and valley and an eponymous community development block in southeast Ladakh. Description Frederic Drew describes the Rupshu valley as follows: Drew states that the valleys of Rupshu continue beyond the Tso ...

Valley. One of the kings, Rupshu Goba, who lived there with his family, built nine permanent houses there. The village has several houses, and the nomadic population who establish their tents (made of yak hair or skin) in summer, add to the agricultural operations in the region. The tents are provided with vents at the top to let out the smoke.

Pashmina Pashmina (, ) refers to, depending on the source, a term for cashmere wool of the Changthangi cashmere goat,Janet Rizvi: ''Pashmina: The Kashmir Shawl and Beyond''. Marg Foundation, 2009. ISBN 978-8185026909. for fine Indian cashmere woolRobert ...

is the valuable product that the Changmas trade along with the salt that they extract from large salt fields in the area, such as the springs at Puga. They barter these two products for food grains and other necessities. In recent years, building activity is on the rise with the nomadic tribes changing their lifestyle.

Demographics

According to the

2011 census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Karzok has 253 households. The effective literacy rate (i.e. the literacy rate of population excluding children aged 6 and below) is 46.64%. Karzok welcome sign

Climate

Karzok has a subarctic climate (

Köppen classification Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author an ...

Dfc) bordering on a

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...

(ET). Summers are cool with chilly nights, and winters are long and cold with lows below zero.

References

{{Leh district Villages in Nyoma tehsil