QXP India

India’s last tiger census, in 2022, counted 3,682 tigers in the wild, close to 75 percent of the world’s remaining wild tiger population. That number has climbed steadily since 2006, when the count stood at 1,411, and a new census is underway this year to see how far it’s risen since. Every one of those tigers depends on a corridor of forest large enough to hunt, breed and move through undisturbed, the same forests a handful of reserves across India still protect.

On International Tiger Day, that’s worth remembering.

Luxury in India is not only found in palaces and heritage hotels. It also lives in the hands of artisans mastering a single craft over a lifetime.

In Moradabad, known as India’s Brass City, artisans hand-hammer brass into vessels using tools passed down through generations, with engraving added only once a piece is formed.

In Agra, artisans still practise pietra dura, the marble inlay technique used on the Taj Mahal, setting slices of semi-precious stone into white marble by hand.

Hand-knotted carpets can take months to complete, with artisans following a printed pattern and tying every knot by hand.

In Jaipur, the wooden blocks used for hand block printing are carved by hand first, each one a craft in itself before a single length of fabric is printed.

Which of these crafts would you like to see up close?

Spiti Valley sits at roughly 3,800 metres in Himachal Pradesh, a cold desert close to the Tibetan border. Every winter the main road in from Manali closes under snow and does not reopen until spring, leaving only the longer route through Shimla and Kinnaur. Temperatures fall to around minus 15 degrees by day and minus 30 at night, and the valley stays buried in snow for months.

This is also when its oldest monasteries see the fewest visitors all year. Tabo, founded in 996 CE, holds murals over a thousand years old and is still in daily use. Key Monastery, the largest in the valley, has stood on its hilltop for centuries, and its main temple still avoids electric light to protect the murals inside. Dhankar Monastery is built directly into a cliff face between two rivers.

Very few travellers see any of this in winter.

Interested in visiting? Get in touch.

Meghalaya’s living root bridges are grown, not built. The Khasi people train the aerial roots of the rubber fig tree across rivers, guiding them over bamboo scaffolding for two to three decades until they can bear weight on their own. Unlike concrete or steel, they only get stronger with age, and local communities still maintain them today. The bridges are now on UNESCO’s tentative list, nominated for full World Heritage status in recognition of their sustainability and cultural significance.

Want to see them for yourself? Get in touch.

What began on the banks of sacred rivers and within forest ashrams, passed from teacher to student through breath, discipline and wisdom, now reaches every corner of the globe.

From studios in Berlin to community classes in São Paulo, yoga continues to inspire millions. Yet its philosophy, heritage and lineage remain deeply rooted in India.

Observed every year on 21 June, the International Day of Yoga is India’s gift to the world. The practice itself, however, is far older than any modern calendar, a timeless tradition that continues to unite mind, body and spirit.

Yoga is not just a practice. It is one of India’s most enduring gifts to humanity. ✨

IndiaToTheWorld

Our director with , President and CEO of the , at the WMF Summer Soiree at the Rainbow Room,

QXP India is proud of designing and executing the World Monuments Fund’s India journeys. An inspiring evening celebrating heritage conservation and the important work being done around the world to preserve it.

Beyond the rain shadow of the Annapurnas lies a kingdom that was closed to the world until 1992.

Upper Mustang was once the Kingdom of Lo, walled at its capital of Lo Manthang at 3,800 metres, its monarchy outlasting Nepal’s own by more than a century. Mud-brick houses and barley terraces stand much as they did six hundred years ago.

It is the cliffs that carry the deeper mystery. Around 10,000 caves are carved into the vertical sandstone, some rising five storeys, some set 155 feet above the valley floor. Archaeologists have pulled from them partially mummified bodies dating back 3,000 years, 14th century Buddhist murals, manuscripts, and burial masks worked in gold and silver.

No one knows for certain who built them. No one knows precisely why.
Its Tibetan culture has survived almost untouched, preserved by isolation rather than design.