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Published: September 19th 2015
Trekking back to the village.After spending a while at the lake, we made our way back to the village. It was seven in the evening by the time we got to our homestay. We were famished and exhausted. Dinner was served in our guide’s snug little living room where mattresses were laid out on the floor for one to sit on. Interestingly, the main stove was not located in the kitchen but in the living room. This arrangement kept the room warm as a locally modified tin chimney kept the smoke away. Their staple meal consists of Rice, Dal and Chapatis. To my surprise, the women served us Rajma Chawal (my favourite), referred to as Dal. I gorged like a pig like there was no tomorrow. After a good nights sleep, we woke up to another beautiful morning.
The next day we were treated with their traditional (and very fluffy 😊) Tibetan bread with some butter, jam and pickle. Soon thereafter, we went on to explore the 1000 year old Dhankar Monastery (fort-like structure) which is built on a 300 metre high spur, perched precariously between rocky pinnacles off of a cliff overlooking the Spiti-Pin confluence. It has been declared as one
of the 100 most endangered sites in the world by the World Monuments Fund and work towards its preservation is on-going. A peek into its prayer hall and the architecture transports one into a different time zone.
After a two hour drive from Dhankar, we arrived at the village of
Lalung (meaning the
'land of god') which is located at the foot of the Tangmar mountains. It supposedly transforms in colour depending on the mood of the deities. On reaching Lalung, we went straight to visit the
Lalung Monastery (one of the oldest gompas in Spiti Valley). We walked around the inner sanctum of the monastery which is decorated with murals of Buddhist rituals that have faded over time. It had beautifully decorated walls with pictures of multiple deities. That day, we spent a considerable amount of time in our homestay after being served lunch and the traditional butter tea. It was only in the evening when we headed out for our little village walk, interacted with the local people and took pictures with them.
All that you have to do to break the ice with the people there is to smile and say 'Juley!' (Ju stands for greetings
Dhankar Monastery perched on a rocky cliff.and Ley for respect) and these people would be more than willing to indulge you effervescently. What also works is the fact that these folks can easily converse in Hindi or English apart from their local language Bhoti. We couldn't help but notice the joy in their eyes and the smiles on their faces. It was so pure and overwhelming that it just melted me away. Since it was getting dark, we picked up a few nibbles from a local shop (we were running out of our own stock) and headed back to our homestay. Later in the night, we had our meal comprising of locally grown spinach (paalak) along with hot dal, rice and chapati. Post dinner, we walked out to the terrace and stood in the open amidst pitch darkness and an eerie silence. This entire picture was so haunting yet comforting with a galaxy of stars shining upon us. On that starry note and with a dreamy smile on our faces, we slumbered the night away.
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