A few more monasteries and a start of a trekking

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Thikse

So, the day has come. A day to start trekking.

But hey, we won't start walking right away. First we have to visit a few monasteries... cool 😊

Basically, we are now going up river, on the road towards Manali. Well... then the driver says, we have to go off road... reason? he hasn't got an offical tourist licence as a taxi driver, so he has to hide. There is actually a control just a few kilometres away from Leh. So, off road... and that was actually interesting, as we first went towards Spiti and then across some unbeaten tracks, off the tourist road 😊

The first monastery of the day was Thikse. When we came, we heard horns... So, immediately we followed the sound of hours (it would be a bit tacky if i said sound of music hehe) so wemanaged to stumble upon the roof of the gompa, from which we got our best view of the Indus valley. And two guys blowing into their horns. They were calling to the prayer, somebody said 5 days prayer... So,... i just had to see it... and it was... incredible... enchanting... and monks from 5 to 50 years old singing, playing instruments... (just have a look at the video). There was also a statue of huge buddha - called Maitreya, the future Boddhisattva, not just the one from the past...

Anyway... after we that we went on... towards Hemis monastery. This is one of the biggest and most popular monasteries near Leh. There is an interesting theory in scrolls supposedly hidden somewhere in Hemis monastery. In those scrolls Jesus Christs lost years were described and he may have gone to India as a young man to learn and teach Buddhism. And to some followers this is very controversial... OK, nevertheless... we didn't stop at the Hemis monastery, but went past up the hill towards the Gotsang monastery. This is not a well knows monastery, but in my opinion well worth a visit... Its about 45m of walking and you just touch 4000m above sea level. Why this monastery is interesting? It should be only for monks par-excellence. All in all, for the best who practice special practices - when such monk comes, he goes for 3 years, 3 monks, 3 days and in 3 hours in a solitary cell. With their joga knowledge some monks are able to dry the sheets with their naked bodies - OK, i can understand where that could be useful 😊

... and after that sightseeing it was time to go to the start of the trekking... to the small village called Sah Sumdo, the start of our trekking at 3700m above sea level... so, no turning back... 😊))

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Photos

Young monk
Thikse monastery

Monks blowing into horns
Thikse monastery

Monks praying
Thikse monastery

Horns during prayer
Thikse monastery

Giant Buddha statue
Thikse monastery

Giant prayer wheel
Thikse monastery

Gotsang monastery
Gotsang monastery

Prayer room (in a library)
Gotsang monastery

Our guide in the monastery
Gotsang monastery