Three monasteries and a river

As I’m writing this blog post, the power has just gone out for the umpteenth time. And when I say umpteenth, I really mean that. All throughout dinner the power was flashing on and off, so much so that we just resorted to having a candlelight dinner. Our tour guide told us that electricity is Leh’s biggest problem, so looks like everything from charging this laptop to taking a shower is going to have to be done when the power is there.

Today began at 6 am, when I was woken up by the sounds of Tibetan/Ladhaki being spoken in the courtyard of the hotel. All though that does sound terrible, there is another rule that one must follow while in Leh: the hot water only comes from 6 am, and stays till whatever time it gets over, only coming back at the 6 pm. If everyone takes a shower at 6 am, then the hot water will be finished with by 6:30; staggered showering will let it last longer, but even then, the hotel staff (who all seem to be related-family business perhaps?) said that it will only last until 9 am. Seeing as most people here are Indian, who take showers in the morning, it was likely that the water would be done closer to 6:30 than 9. And, seeing as my entire family is also Indian, we decided to take showers as early as possible for two reasons: one, so that we could have hot water, and two, so that we could eat breakfast and have time before we went out sight-seeing for the day. Luckily, we all did get to shower with hot water, and we had about an hour before we had to start our journey. That hour was basically spent outside on the balcony, taking pictures of the snow-capped mountains and their neighbors, the completely dirt covered, barren, brown mountains.

We started our tour at 9 am, when our English-speaking guide and the driver came to the hotel. Today’s plan was to visit 3 monasteries and the Indus River, one of India’s holiest rivers. We would start with the farthest monastery first, and make our way backwards. Along the drive to the monastery, we passed a couple of Indian military camps. As our guide explained, these mountains offered the military a chance to practice parachuting covertly, as well as rock-climbing and other activities that soldiers take part in. In fact, our tour guide (who’s name was Karma) told us interesting facts about Leh all throughout the drive. The population of Leh is about 200,000, about 30% make their living from agriculture, 50% from business (the tourist business is a big part of the economy) and 20% were nomads. This was a land of extremes, with temperatures in the summer being about 30ºC, and temperatures in the winter reaching negative 20 ºC. And all though there are snow-capped mountains, this area receives very little rainfall, hence the barren lands. Speaking of snow, the last time this place had snow? Last month, meaning June. And religiously, about 95% of the people in the Ladakh province are Buddhist, and about 5% were Muslim. Surprisingly, there was a huge Tibetan presence in Ladakh, so much so that even though the border with China was only a stone’s throw away, the Dalai Llama was a highly admired, highly respected leader.

Young monks at Hemis monastery

We finally reached the Hemis monastery. This monastery not only had many statues of Buddha (who were told had about 1000 manifestations-everything from medicinal Buddha to the Buddha you pray to for prosperity), but also many pictures of the person who founded the monastery in 1624. I am Hindu, and even in Hinduism we believe that Buddha was a real person who achieved Enlightenment, although we believe that he was an avatar of Vishnu. What’s different is that Buddhism seems to be much more liberal in what you can offer to the God. In most Hindu temples, you can only offer raw vegetables/fruit and milk. Here we saw everything from pearl earrings to Coca Cola to chocolate bars being offered. In the center of the monastery there is a large open space. Every year, during the month of January, a festival takes place (the dates are based on the Tibetan lunar calendar, so the dates vary). Everyone from the Chief Minister of the State to the villagers come to the monastery. Most come to see the monks dancing with devil-like masks over their faces, however, in the middle of the performance, two monks (who have meditated for 3-4 months before this festival) who claim to be possessed by God’s spirit, run around the roof of the monastery. In the ancient times, they used to jump of the roof, but (probably due to safety reasons), they now use the stairs. They then begin to run around the courtyard while cutting their tongue with a knife.

An old monk with the Prayer Wheel at Thiksey

The next stop was Thiksey monastery, where we also had lunch. During lunch I began to feel that I my breaths were becoming shorter and shallower, and I was running out of air. Seeing as this is a sign of altitude sickness, I took an oxygen pill, which is apparently supposed to help expand your breath. Most of us only fill up 25%-30% of our lungs with each breath; this would increase that percentage. This monastery was much like the other one, except more monks were present. There is actually some logic behind the color of the robes that the monks where. The red robes signify that you are praying for yourself, while the orange robes signify that you are praying for others (mankind in general). The latter of the two also signifies gaining some amount of enlightenment. Around the temple there were many Tibetan prayer wheels, which were in essence silver-looking cylinders on wheels that were to be rotated in a clockwise manner. Needless to say, I spun every single one. But the thing that surprised me the most was that there was also a huge lamp, perhaps 4 feet in height, which if filled with oil, could be burned for the entire year. I looked into the lamp-it looked as if the lamp had just been lit, as the level of oil was quite close to the top.

Prayer wheels at Shey Palace

Next stop: Shey palace. The story behind this palace is as follows: One day, the prince of Shey built a 3-story statue of Buddha (which we went and saw) for his father. When he went to his palace, he realized that his palace was actually higher than Buddha’s, which he considered as being sacrilegious. He promptly destroyed his palace (the ruins of which we could see), and built a new one below the Buddha. As we were walking around the palace, we noticed that people had stacked stones of top of each other to create little stone towers. According to the villagers, the higher the mountain, the better your luck. Hopefully that works-I built a 5 layered tower.

Finally we went to the Indus River. This river starts in the mountains and trickles its way down to a point slightly north of Leh, where it splits into two. We put our feet into the probably zero degree water, as that’s the most we were willing to do. See, when you visit most holy rivers in India (like that Ganges) you’re supposed to submerge your entire head under water. It was slightly too cold for that, and we were all exhausted.



After that, we reached the hotel. With 2 hours to go before dinner, we just lazed around the room, playing card games, listening to iPods (which was actually the only piece of technology we had used all day). After dinner, we sat on the balcony. Because Leh doesn’t have many tall buildings or many outdoor lights, the sky was clear. We could see Venus and Sirius, along with many constellations like Orion and Ursa Major. It was something that I hadn’t been able to do for a while; in Princeton, although there aren’t many lights, more than half the “stars” are actually planes. Although I’m not sure if I like being this disconnected from the rest of the world, just sitting on the balcony and looking at the stars made me feel at peace.