Tenzin grew up in a house a few minutes from Leh's main market, where his family ran a small taxi service through the '90s. He learned to fix a jeep's clutch before he was old enough to drive one — mostly because someone always needed a hand on a Sunday when a car broke down halfway to Khardung La.
He left for Delhi to study logistics, and came back in 2014 with a simple observation: tourists arriving in Leh wanted to explore Ladakh on their own terms, but the only options were an overpriced taxi with a fixed itinerary, or a rental counter that handed over the keys and little else. Auriga started with three vehicles he'd bought and serviced himself, and a promise that if something went wrong on the road, someone who actually knew these passes would pick up the phone.
People weren't looking for a rental counter. They were looking for someone who'd tell them the truth about the road ahead.
— Tenzin Dorjay, FounderThat's still how Auriga runs. The fleet has grown to hundreds of cars and bikes across nine locations, but every vehicle is still serviced by a team that drives these same routes, and every booking still ends with a phone number that gets answered — not a script.