Celebrities ranging from Richard Gere to Cindy Crawford have visited Spiti. Huddled among the sea of monks can be seen the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who often addresses the saffron clad monks. The government has launched a desert development program across Spiti with the objective of converting the barren terrain into green. Millions of rupees pour in each year from Central agencies and world bodies. The programs mainly involve the growing of high altitude trees and bushes such as buck thorn.
Financial scandals are common but go mostly unreported.
As high mountains lock the Spiti valley, the wet winds are not able to penetrate. But now with the greening of certain parts of the valley the weather pattern has been abruptly altered, resulting in heavy rains. Spitans are confused and unable to come to terms with this phenomenon. Till a few years ago rain and snow was very scanty. Thinking it was a curse from the heavens, the monks ran helter skelter trying to save some of the oldest and finest paintings of the famous mud walled monastery.