Blogs from Thiksey, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India, Asia

Trip to Thikse monastery. Firstly, this blog entry is slightly different from the rest in that I will go into some very personal reasons for my visit to Ladakh. I had two very important tasks to carry out here in the high Himalaya, apart from the motorcycle trip and discovering more about this wild and beautiful place. As some may know, my dear wife Di had been a practicing Buddhist for about 15 years and indeed, before I met her, she considered living permanently in the monastery that she was associated with in Bradford on Avon. However, luckily for me, she decided against it about 6 months before I met her. She used to attend week long retreats 4 times a year until she became very ill about 18 months before she died. The first task ... read more

(Continued from previous blog entry) - The journey back from Hemis saw us arrive at Thiksey Goemba in virtually no time. Still, the mind plays tricks on you; the distance often seems shorter than it really is. Gazing toward the destination it felt like all the twists and turns in the road kept creeping out of nowhere to try to disorient and delay our journey for little good reason. The large temple complex at Thiksey sits high atop a narrow hill around which the highway snakes itself. Though much smaller, it has the typical iconic look of the Potala in Lhasa, of which it appears to be a not so distant cousin. A village lies spread out around the higway, typically with people and animals bumbling about on the curb. White stupas in various degrees of ... read more