Ladakh is a union territory ruled by India that is an eastern component of the broader Kashmir area and has been a source of contention between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India and China since 1959. Ladakh is bounded by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east, the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south, the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan to the west, and the southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. It stretches from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range to the main Great Himalayas to the south. The eastern end, which includes the desolate Aksai Chin plains, is claimed by the