Himalayan India

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Friday 20 June

Today we drove to Alchi 70km from Leh over a sandy dessert area with barren mountains on all sides. The road was being repaired in many areas, a perpetual job, which meant diversions into the surrounding dessert over even bumpier surfaces.

We made a detour to visit the 12th Century Likir Monastery in a green valley set up above the Indus valley, with a 74ft gold painted statue of the sitting Buddha outside next to the buildings. There was a fine collection of thangkas, images in beautifully carved wooden frames & a museum displaying royal armery, holy books, ancient thangkas etc.

We drove on down a series of hairpin bends to cross the river Indus before climbing up the other side to reach the pretty village of Alchi. We passed some deer high up on the mountain side.

Alchi sits on a bend of the Indus river with white-washed buildings with a deep red trim set against the barren mountains which seem to have colours varying from red to grey to green to yellowish. There are narrow pathways between the houses often with little waterways running alongside, similar to the levadas on Madeira.

We walked down one of these paths to Sum-Tseg camp where we are staying the night. It is run by the monastery so any profits helps support the monks & the property. We have a nice large tent with 2 single beds, enough height to stand up properly & an electric light when the supply is working.

After lunch we explore the monastery which is just next door & is all on the flat so no steps - great! It has 5 temples, various stupas & other buildings with nice little green courtyards between. It was founded in 21th century but was abandoned for regular worship for some unknown reason in 16th century so the paintings are extremely well preserved as they have not been subjected to years of soot from the butter lamps & incense sticks. The murals have been painted with diluted semi-precious stones so they are vivid & the details on the minature paintings on the legs of one of the giant statues can still be clearly seen as long as you have a torch as there was very little light in any of the buildings.

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