Laddakh LITTLE TIBETTHE LAND OF GOMPAS

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Life at 11000 feet High
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Laddakhi
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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
sayWhen you are ready, the teacher will appear
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Lamayuru Gompa
Apart 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 nove
l 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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.

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Spituk Gompa
About 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.
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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.
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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.

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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.

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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.
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Sanskriti tour the indian way
Please contact Tarun Raikhy Sanskriti Tours
91 11 6146620 91 98101 29536
tarun_at_sanskritiworld.com