Ladakh’s First and Only All-Women Travel Company and the Woman Who Started It All

How many women does it take to start an all-women travel company, set up a women’s welfare network for women in distress, write tirelessly on social and environmental issues, win a bronze at the National Ice Hockey Championship, and keep training an ever-growing number of women to be professional trekking guides in the harsh terrain of Ladakh? Just one, if that woman happens to be Thinlas Chorol.

Back in 2009, Thinlas Chorol set up the Ladakhi Women’s Travel Company, which has the distinction of being Ladakh’s first travel company completely owned and operated by women. It is also known for promoting ecotourism.

Thinlas’ foray into the mountains began as a five-year-old accompanying her father on long treks through the mountains with their goats and sheep. Having lost her mother when she was a baby, her father was all Thinlas had. Scared that “something might happen” to him if he were to venture into the mountains alone, she went with him. Today, as one of Ladakh’s best trekking guides, she looks back on that incomparable training fondly, as “the bliss of my childhood.”

Her Journey…

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