Life at 11000 feet High

Laddakhi

THE LAND OF GOMPAS

As you drive into Leh and after the odyssey of a long drive, comes a fairy-tale ending. A fort, a palace and a monastery stand out against the sky, amidst an avenue of poplars. This is Leh. The journey has just begun. As the Buddhists say:`When you are ready, the teacher will appear

The Gompas ‘Monasteries’

Like many other religious establishments all over the world,  the gompas too have been gifted lands, by the ex-rulers of Ladakh. It is  from these lands and public donations that the gompas  derive their income.  Cultivation on gompa land is done by the labourers and not by the lamas, for ploughing by lamas is considered inauspicious.

It  is  believed that in the olden days the gompas stood  on  the trading  route  to Tibet and offered sanctuary to  travelers  and traders. All  the  thirteen  important gompas of  Ladakh  celebrate  their annual  festivals in winter,  except the Hemis Gompa which celebrates  it  in June or July, lasting three  days.  Ladakhis  gather enthusiastically  for  these gay festivals and witness  folk  and religious masked dances.

HEMIS GOMPA

The Hemis Gompa was built in 1620 by the king-architect Singe Namgyal who was a great patron of Buddhism, This  is  the biggest gompa of Ladakh.  It is situated 44 kms from Leh on the Leh-Manali  road. For a visit to this place one has to travel 8 kms via Karu, after crossing the river Indus. Hemis Gompa  is  not visible from the road.  There are several  temples here,  which contain stupas and precious images made of gold. The art  pieces  glitter with precious stones.  There is  a  valuable store  of thankas in this gompa including the biggest in  Ladakh. It is displayed once in eleven years and the next display will be in  1992. However, they were soon to be in a  pitiable plight for Zorawar Singh had reached the Hemis Gompa after  plundering  and destroying the other gompas on his  route. The  manager of the Hemis Gompa skillfully saved his monastery  by surrendering before any more damage could be done.  In 1956,  the chief lama of the gompa disappeared never to be seen again. His absence led to the deterioration of the condition of the Hemis Gompa.  A twelve-year-old lama was enthroned in 1976.

The  lamas of Ladakh respect other religions also. In this  gompa important  posts like that of the motbir (manager) were given  to Kadir  Sheikh  and  Akhon Abdul Hussain  who  were  Muslims.  The kitchen of this gompa is unique. There is a huge vessel of copper whose diameter is 12 m, capable of cooking rice or thuppa for 500 people at a time. Buddhist visitors donate money to the kitchen.

There  is is a courtyard in front of the gompa which is 60 m long and 18 m wide. In this courtyard four long poles are stuck in the ground  at  equal distances and four different  banners  fly  atop these  poles.  A big worn-out thanka is hung in front of the temple, on which the picture of Chapgon Gyalshas, the founder of the Hemis Gompa, is painted. Three-fourths of the area of the courtyard  is  left for religious dances.  The rest of  the  place  is normally full of spectators on such occasions.

Likir Gompa

King  Lachhen Gyalpo built this gompa in the 11th  century.  From Leh,  on the way to Saspol there is a road diverting to the right. About 5 km from the crossing of this road lies Likir.  It has 120 lamas.  The  temple has many Buddha images of clay  in  different postures. The wall paintings of Likir are about a 1000-year-old. Likir is famous for its earthen pots,  which are in great demand. These  pots are sturdy,  plain and beautiful.  The pot makers  of Likir have been making their wares for hundreds of years.

The gompa school has about 30 pupils who learn three languages besides Ladakhi: Hindi and English, as these are the national languages of India, and Tibetan for religious purposes. The pupils, some of whom will be selected as lamas, live part of the time in the monastery and part of the time with their parents. Likir's head lama, a younger brother of the Dalai Lama, is married (against the rule of the sect) and is permanently absent from the gompa.

Lamayuru GompaApart from Alchi & Likir,  this is the oldest gompa of Ladakh. On the Srinagar-Leh road,  after crossing the highest pass of  Fatu, there  is  a  sharp turn signaling the descent  into  the  Indus valley.  As  soon  as  one comes around this turn one  beholds  a strange  looking valley on top of which the imposing building  of Lamayuru gompa is clearly visible.  It brings to mind the  palace depicted in James Hamilton's novel `The Lost  Horizon   of Shangrilla'.In  Lamayuru, caves have been dug out in the  mountains.  For centuries  the  lamas have been living in these  caves.  In  some instances,  the  chomos  have  also been  using  these  caves  as habitation. Some of these caves are still inhabited. The king  of Ladakh  invited  the great Buddhist monk of Tibet  named  Rinchen Zangpo, who established 108 gompas in western Tibet & Ladakh. One of  these is Lamayuru, which had one central temple & four  other temples at its Four Corners. The central temple thrived, but  the corner temples were gradually neglected & turned into ruins.

Alchi Gompa

About a 1000 years back, Rinchen Zangpo built this gompa. It  is  about  70 kms away from Leh.  The village  of  Saspol is situated on the right side of the Indus river and across this, on the  left  bank of the river,  is Alchi.  Between Saspol & Alchi there  is no bridge. A bridge has been built about 2-3 kms  down the  river, which is negotiable, by vehicles.  The main  temple  of Alchi is comparatively small.  The central pavilion is 3 m long, 3  m  wide & 6 m high.  Several clay images have been  placed  on three  walls.  On one of its walls thousands of mini-pictures  of the Buddha have been painted.  Wooden statues have been placed at the gate.  On the right side stands the statue of Avalokiteshwar, which  has a thousand arms.  The head of an ibex with four horns, instead  of  the usual two hangs here.  The ibex was  shot  by  a soldier & presented to the gompa.The  Alchi temple has three images as high as three floors of the building  & they stand in a very narrow space.  They are made  of clay  & painted with different colors.  There are  thousands  of mini-pictures of the Buddha on the walls of the third temple.

  It was situated near Thikse,  about 14 kms  away from Leh.This  age-old  gompa is in bad shape now.  The walls  have  been disfigured  by rainwater seeping through cracks in the roof  and many wall paintings have been spoilt.  The gompa has no resources to maintain itself

Shey Gompa

The oldest palace of Ladakh is located at Shey.  Which is situated at a distance of 16 km on the Leh-Manali road.  King Lhachen Smal Gigun built this palace. The Shey Gompa is situated on a hillock, and  there  is a 7. 5m high Buddha image in this  temple.  King Deldan Namgyal, son of King Singhye Namgyal, built this temple in A.D.1655 in memory of his father.  The statue of the Buddha is made of  copper,  platted with gold,  and is the  biggest  metal statue of its kind in Ladakh. A lamp with butter burns in front of the statue throughout the year.

A  Nepalese sculpture named Sanga Zargar Wanduk was  commissioned to  make  this statue.  Three Ladakhi craftsmen- Paldana  Shering Gyaso,  Gamani Jal Shring & Nakbiri-assisted him. The castings of the  statue  were made in Leh at a place called  Zanstin  Palace. Zans means copper & tin means to hammer.  Actually the copper for this  statue  was hammered into plates on a big rock.  For  this, copper  was  collected  from Lingshet &  other  villages  of  the Zanskar area. More than 5 kg of gold was used for platting. This huge  statue was built in Zanstil Palace in parts &  then  transported the Shey temple, where they were assembled and installed.

Thikse Gompa

This  gompa  is situated about 19 kms away from from Leh on  Leh-Manali road.  It stands on a hilltop in the desert and is visible from  a  distance.  The houses of the lamas are situated  on  the slopes of the hill.  The gompa is especially interesting from  the point  of  view of its architectural beauty.  There  are  several temples  in this gompa containing images,  stupas and  wall paintings. The wall paintings of the main temple are exquisite.

Shankar Gompa

Sankar Gompa is a subsidiary of Spitok gompa, having the same head lama. Sankar is easily visited on foot from Leh, lying as it does in Leh's suburbs. About 25 lamas of the yellow-hat sect are attached to Sankar but only a few live here permanently. Thus, it is only open to the public from 7 to 10 am and from 5 to 7 pm. Sankar gompa is about 90 years old but is located on the site of a small temple that was built about 500 years ago.

From the street one enters the gompa's front yard. To the right are a few steps climbing up to the double doors that open onto the Dukhang or main assembly hall. The entrance porch has paintings of the Guardians of the Four Directions on either side of the entry door. On the left wall of the veranda is a "Wheel of Life" held by Yama, the deity that determines a person's future fate after death. The wall on the right depicts the Old Man of Long Life.

Spituk GompaAbout 7km from Leh on the right bank of the river Indus, this gompa  is visible from afar,  standing quite prominently on  the top of a mountain.  A new temple has been built here and  the old one renovated. There are some fine "thankas" in this gompa. The  main  temple  contains many icons of the  Buddha.  There  is temple of Mahakal that is about 900 years old. This temple was built  by  King  Takspa  Bung  .  It  has  a  images  of  Mahakal (yamantak) & others. The  awe-inspiring image of Mahakal has 35 arms on each side. It has 8  legs on  one side. The face of the Mahakal is covered  throughout  the year & is shown to spectators only at the annual function in  the month  of  January. The walls of the temple  are  decorated  with beautiful  paintings. One of the wall paintings has human  skeletons on it.  In  this  temple there is a collection  of  16  ancient masks of different animals, gods & goddesses. The temple also has a collection of antique arms.In  a  room  adjacent to Mahakal's  chamber,  a  big  curtain  is stretched between two long poles. People attach their photographs & currency to the cloth for the fulfillment of their wishes.

ZANSKAR

A self contained multi-day river adventure down the spectacular and scenic Zanskar river gorge. The trip takes you down the extremely desolate, remote and sheer Zanskar gorge with walls rising a few thousand feet out of the river bed, culminating on the mighty Indus river. This, combined with hikes and visits to various gompas in the Ladakh and Zanskar region makes this a fascinating trip to the last and truly lost horizon of our shrinking planet - Zanskar, "the land of white copper". This run through Grade III/IV rapids enhances the experience of journeying down this otherwise untrekkable gorge.

Festivals

Most festivals in Ladakh are religious and take place at the gompas. Unfortunately for the tourist, most of these festivals occur in the winter months. Ladakhi winter is extremely harsh and most social activities like weddings, visiting friends and family, indoor handicraft work and participating in religious festivals is postponed till the summers.

Traditionally, only Hemis gompa held a big summer festival but in 1983, Thiksey gompa held its festival in the summer for the first time. In addition to the religious festivals, there are small harvest thanksgiving festivals in the autumn. In 1983, Leh held its first Tourist Festival, in the first week of August.

How to get there

By Flight : From Delhi & Srinagar - Indian Airlines

& Jet airways.

By Road : Srinagar to Leh via Kargil ( 2-3 days) Manali to Leh (2 - 3 Days) These are the most beautiful &

breathtaking road journey’ on the worlds highest road, crossing passes as high as 15000 ft & even more..

Government run busses ply on these roads, or else you can hire taxi / jeeps or maybe ride your own way on motor-cycles.

Visits in & around Leh TREKS AROUND LEH :

Alchi-Lamayuru Trek ( 5 days)

Markha valley trek (11 days)

Hemis Darcha via Rupshu (9 days)

Manali to Leh via Hemis (17 days)

Manali to Leh via Lamayurur ( 18 Days)

Temisgram Trek (Likir) (5 Days)

Excursions around Leh :

Zanskar valley

Nubra valley - the highest road of the world passes through .

Tsomiriri Lake - a place ready to shock you out of your world.

The following can be traveled to by jeeps / private vehicles, we need permits to visit Nubra & Tsomiriri Lake with requirement of minimum 4 pax.

Sanskriti tour the indian way

Please contact :

Tarun RaikhySanskriti Tours

91 11 614662091 98101 29536

tarun@sanskritiworld.com

Note: This slideshow was downloaded from the web. I have no connection with Sanskriti Tours. I have shared it for information purposes only. - avalok