PANGONG TSO, India -- The night sky was magical: an inky black background studded with stars, glinting and twinkling in rhythm, as if taking cues from a silent orchestra.
A thick hush hung in the air above the sprawling Pangong Tso Lake, its rippling surface awash with an ethereal glow and countless tiny pricks of reflected light. It was a celestial show without comparison at this brackish water body that spans India's eastern Ladakh region across to west Tibet at 4,225 meters above sea level.