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India - Hemis, Thak Thog, Thiske and Shey.
The Indus Valley or Gompa Alley as I preferred to call it (no, it's a bit too far to try knocking them down with a bowling ball), stretching out to the east of Leh towards the Leh-Manali Highway. Right, here goes with the march of the monasteries - er, gompas. So, starting at the east end of the valley...
...oh, the spellings of these vary depending on the transliteration of the Tibetan script to Latin script used (i.e. matching sounds to equivalent letters). So if you don't recognise the spelling, tough - I've given up trying to get it right!!!
Let's get this straight now, this is not an exhaustive list of gompas or monasteries. Yes, you can visit them all in a day, but you don't get a full look. If you're seriously into your gompas (whilst sympathetic to Buddhism I'm not a Buddhist), you'll need a few days and be prepared to stay in local guesthouses of potentially variable quality.
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Thak Thog and Chemrey My first gompa in Ladakh!!! There's not much I can tell you about this place, except that it's the only monastery, er, gompa (going to have to get used to this), of the ancient Nyingmapa order and it has a collection of yak butter candle sculptures made by the head lama. Not a brilliant start to this. That said, this was a good chance to meet the locals and the following women were visiting the monastery (it's gompa - this is Ladakh!!!) to pay their respects. If you remeber my comment elsewhere about local women wearing Kashmiri clothes because they're more comfortable, look at the top of the steps for two such ladies. Poll is taking a closer look at the Drugpa (Red Hat) sect Chemrey Gompa (at last, got it right), founded in 1664 as a memorial to a local king. Chemrey is one gompa that is seeing a decline in numbers of monks - whilst it is true that many young people are shunning a monastic life, Chemrey seems not to be seeing the expansion other monasteries are seeing. This apparent expansion in the face of modern life is one I find a little confusing and might be more a bricks and mortar thing rather than an expansion in monastic populations. That said, despite the growing numbers of Moslems from Kashmir, Buddhism in Ladakh appears to be very healthy. This may be a direct result of the presence of Tibetan refugees in the area, probably boosting mostly the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat population in a traditionally very strong Drugpa sect area. Oh, I forgot about the archery competition - Pradeep, if you ever read this, don't give up the day job lad. |
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Beefy at Hemis If Chemrey is in decline, Hemis is not in such bad nick (though is quiet outside festival time). The Drugpa (Red Hat) sect Hemis Gompa is the largest in Tibet and made famous by the very accessible festival here in late June. The Hemis Festival is one of the biggest draws not only for followers of Buddhism but for tourists too. My own plans were to go at the time of this festival (firstly in 2004 then 2005), however, it was fully booked up (and this back in January). I finally got there in late July, a month late. The moral of story - this you sort out a year in advance. Hemis is home to a giant Thangka (a Buddhist scroll or banner depicting, for example, the lives of Buddha, medicine, astrology, saints and deities, Tibetan theology or mandalas - mandalas are described on the Alchi page), which so it can be looked after is only brought out every twelve years. The last time was 2004 (yup, I missed it) - next is 2016. I'll be back in 2016 (even if married with mortgage and kids), that's a promise. |
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Buddhist Wheel of Life, Hemis Right, I'm not an expert about this, so sorry if I get this wrong. Each of the six segments is one of the worlds that anyone can be born into when they return in the next life. The bottom one is easy - that's hell (flames and not so eternal damnation). To it's right is the world of hungry ghosts, each tormented by insatiable desire. To it's left is the world of animals. The next level has the world of men on the left and demi-gods on the right, with heaven at the top. The creature holding the wheel is the demon of impermanence - you don't know where you'll end up next. In Buddhism, by a combination of prayer, meditation, study and good deeds, the aim is to escape this continual cycle of life, death and rebirth, to achieve enlightenment and entry to Nirvana. |
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Wall Paintings, Hemis Right, let's hope I get this right too. In the above, the elephant can't reach the fruit in the tree, so he gets he monkey to help. The monkey can't reach either, so he holds a rabbit up as high as he can reach. The rabbit can't reach, so along comes a dove and finally, they can all get the fruit off the tree. The moral, working together achieves more and sometime you the help of others to achieve your aims. However, it does puzzle me why the dove needed to be held up to the tree to reach, when it could have flown up to get to the fruit itself. It must have eaten too much on a previous visit to fly. As for the rest displayed below, I'll fill in the information when I get a chance to read up on them. |
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Thiske, Matho, the Maitreya at Thiske and the local car
parking chorten The Gelugpa Thiske (or Tiske or Tiskey or Thiskey - take you're pick) Gompa is another place which, like the ruined palace in Leh, is seriously over photographed - I wouldn't be surprised if the monks ask for the photography to stop, in case all those camera flashes going off make tourists mistake the place for a nightclub. It's resemblance (from it's eastern side at least) to the Polata Palace in Lhasa is quite remarkable (a mini version if you like). The gompa has seen a remarkable upsurge in fortunes since the arrival of tourists in 1974 and the money from tourism has allowed major renovation work and rebuilding to be carried out. The Maitreya (Future Buddha) Temple (the Buddha itself is shown below) is one example, it being inaugurated by the Dalai Lama in 1980. However, two problems that the temple does have is that the influx of tourists (it's only a short drive from Leh) make meditation difficult and the local Rinpoche has become involved in Kashmiri politics, thus it's reputation has suffered. Apparently, prayer time is a good time to visit if you want to hear the giant Tibetan trumpets being played. Thiske is also a good vantage point to look at the rest of the upper Indus Valley - from it, you can see Shey and Stok (the current residence of the Ladakhi royal family) to the west, Matho (pictured below) across the Indus with the mountains rising away behind it (some people have advertised this as 'Alchi' elsewhere???), and also Stakna to the south. Thiske's chortens also have another use - protecting cars from the weather. I wonder if Thiske charges for the use of it's car parking chortens? |
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Shey and it's fields of chortens Shey is the closest of the main places to be visited to Leh. Shey is a former capital of Ladakh and like the palace in Leh itself, the palace here was abandoned by the local royal family for Stok when the Dogras invaded in the 19th century. The palace itself is thus semi-derelict, things of note here including a large Shakyamuni (Present) Buddha and a remaining small temple. To the east of Shey and spreading towards Thiske are the fields of chortens or stupas ('chorten' is the Ladakhi word) - they make quite a sight when you're stood amongst them and they seem to spread out in every direction. Chortens, chortens everywhere - now under which one did I park my car? |
One gompa I've not mentioned that sometimes comes up is Henle or Hanle on the Ladakh-Tibet border. This is firstly a hec of a drive and also in the restricted zone along the border. Remote and away from tourists it is, but you need a letter from the Dalai Lama himself and an Indian military permit to get to it. Translated, forget it.
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