Discover India’s ‘last village’: a hub of Balti culture on the Pakistan border

An inky darkness blankets the road as I step out of the car.

I blink to get my bearings, the silhouettes of trees slowly forming beneath a startling canopy of stars.
“Sorry to make you walk in the dark, but this is a shortcut,” says Rashidullah Khan, our companion and guide for the evening.

He leads the way up through the trees, our phone torches illuminating pebbled, muddy slopes.

After 10 minutes, we reach a narrow lane flanked by stone walls punctuated with wooden doors.

A sculpture of a...