Leh Trip - Day 3: A visit to the Monasteries

Woke up early, it was a spine chilling 2 degrees at 9 AM. Had some hot soup, cheese sandwiches for breakfast, packed more sandwiches for lunch and hit the road.

Agenda: visit monasteries and palaces around Leh.

First up, the Stok palace. A lovely palace overlooking Leh city from the southern side. Although the sun would give us some respite from the otherwise chill breeze, we had to enter the palace and boy was it cold. we had to take of our shoes at the more holy places within the palace. The inside temperature would surely have been well in the sub zero region. there were many artifacts from the 16th century inside. the silver cups and tea kettles, the gold ornaments and the queens turquoise stone studded crown. There was a 300 year old Yak skin wine maker. Many stuffed mountain goat heads lined the Kings chamber. It was a spooky place with a holy fragrance filling the air. A step outside gave us the much awaited heat from the sun and respite from all the spookiness. We took some lovely shots of the resident birds, the Magpie, and the view of Leh city from the grand balconies of the palace before we hit the road to our next destination.

Up next, we visited the Hemis Gonpa, the biggest Gonpa in Ladakh. It was built in the early 17th century. The entrance was lined up with long queues of Prayer wheels which were a great sight. it is a must only to rotate the prayer wheels in the clock wise direction to spread a holy message to the world across. I religiously did that on every prayer wheel around. The Hemis is house to the giant statue of 'Guru Padmasambhava'. He was one of the greatest followers of Buddhist teachings and widespread awareness programmes in the 8th century. There were close 500 resident monks in the promise and it was a lovely sight to see all chanting some mantras but still carrying out there day to day activities in rhythm. I left the place with a big smile on my face as it was one step closer the understanding of Buddhism for me.

We visited Thiksey Gonpa next. It was a sight to the giant Gonpa from a distance. as we walked through the doors of the monastery, we could hear chanting of many monks and some kind of ritual going on. The eagerness to see the ritual was growing but so were the number of steps to reach the top. Once on top, we saw many old monks chanting some mantras, playing there holy drums and a long 8 feet long flute. Inside was the massive statue of "Maitreya Buddha", the future Buddha. It was an awe inspiring statue. It was as though the Buddha was overlooking the entire valley and waiting for his arrival to cleans it of its dirt.

On our Agenda next was to visit the Shey palace. This is where the royal family resided before moving to the Stok palace during the mid 18 century. This palace was built around mid 16th century. The shrine inside houses the copper glided statue of Lord Buddha rising to a height of 3 storeys. There is no other statue of this kind anywhere in Ladakh.

On the way back I insisted on visiting my school where I had studied 20 years back. Kendriya Vidyalaya, Leh. Although many people did not recognise my school today, I remembered the way to the place and gave directions to the driver. He was amazed. A visit to the principal said that the building had changed in 2001 and the one I studied in has been donated to the government for a boys higher secondary school. I was introduced to the school attendant by the principal who joined in 1989 and remembers a bit from the old days. when I asked about my Math teacher who I dreaded back in the days, he clearly remembered him to be Mr. Narendra.

Generally a good day visiting monasteries and my school. Ate early and slept peacefully.