PENANG -- My first and only encounter with the elusive Panthera uncia, better known as the snow leopard, was with a stiff and stuffed creature, wooden eyeballs pitted with bright red and blue glass, hanging from the ceiling of a gompa (Buddhist monastery) at 4,587 meters above sea level in Komik, a small village in the remote Spiti Valley bordering Tibet.
That experience was the opposite of the adventure I had imagined -- locking gazes with the beast in a snowy valley encased by barren peaks. But at least I had seen one, partially satisfying my fascination with the legendary creature.
