The monasteries of Ladakh

The Monasteries of Ladakh

In the very far north of the country and only an hours flight from Delhi is located the remote and culturally distinct region of India with breathtaking ancient towns, monasteries and some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the world.

Ladakh, often thought of as a smaller version of Tibet, is a

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beautiful desert region high in the western Himalayan plateau. Culturally and geographically very close to Tibet, the Ladakhi kings had for centuries been subservient to the more powerful Tibetan rulers to the east. Though it is place of few resources and an extreme climate, the Buddhist Ladakhis, with their traditions of frugality and their intimate knowledge of the local environment, not only survived but actually prospered in this land.

The Ladakhi people have endured centuries of invasions from the Mongols of central Asia, the Baltis from Baltistan that lies to the west, the Dogras from the south and occasionally, even the Tibetans from the east. Today, their mixed ethnic origins are reflected in their faces and in their resilience as they confront rapid modernity that threatens to overwhelm their ancient culture.

A visit to some of Ladakh’s principal monasteries, particularly during the time they hold their colourful festivals is something that I had wanted to do for long. With anticipation, I took the remarkable flight that takes you from Delhi to the almost surreal landscape of Ladakh in an hour. This surely is one of the most sensational scheduled flights in the world, taking you right over the top of the Greater Himalaya and a spectacular landscape of glaciers, snow covered peaks and fertile valleys before descending to land at the airport at Leh. Due to the effects of high altitude, it is a good idea to spend the first day or two at leisure with some easy walks to the local bazaar. The old part of Leh is a maze of narrow streets, temples and bazaars and is a great place to explore.

Leh was the ancient capital of Ladakh and its kings once commanded a huge territory stretching from Baltistan in the west to almost as far as Lhasa in Tibet to the east. Leh, was for centuries at the centre of the trade in fine pashmina wool, once worth its weight in gold. Heavily laden yak and pony caravans brought in pashmina from Tibet, turquoise, coral and silver from Yarkand and Kashgar in central Asia, spices and fabrics from India and silk from Kashmir. The Yarkandi and Kashmiri merchants of Leh were renowned for their immense wealth. William Moorcroft and John Trebeck, two English explorers visiting Leh in 1836, were stunned to see a town of such wealth located in the midst of what was obviously arid desert land.

The Royal Palace which dominates the town is reminiscent of the Potala in Lhasa and the Tibetan Buddhist style monasteries, large white painted stupas (chortens), prayer flags and mud brick houses with flat roofs are a dramatic change in style from other Indian cities.

Given the large number of Indian and overseas tourists that visit Leh during the summer months, there are a wide range of hotels to choose from. One of the oldest and best known is the Lharimo Hotel, run by the Kalon family. After a comfortable nights rest, I started my monastery exploration the following morning with a visit to the Sankar Gompa (monastery). This gompa belongs to the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat order of Tibetan Buddhism and houses a beautiful impression of the Buddhist deity, Avolokiteshwara Padmahari with a thousand arms and heads. The hill on which the nearby Shanti (Peace) stupa is located offers excellent views of Leh town, parts of the Indus River Valley and the imposing 6100m (20,100 ft) high peak of Stok Kangri that dominates Leh.

Standing behind Leh town and the bazaar like a sentinel is the Leh Palace. This imposing building rises from the edge of a hill overlooking the town. Built in the 17th century, Leh Palace was occupied by the Ladakhi royal family until the 1830's. Today the palace is deserted and is being restored section by section by UNESCO.

Leh is located besides the Indus river that enters India from Chinese Tibet and then flows through Ladakh before crossing over into Pakistan controlled areas. Both up and downstream of Leh are located a string of important Ladakhi monasteries. A short walk up the road from the Lharimo Hotel is Leh’s central taxi stand from where I hired a Tata Sumo vehicle for the drive to Shey, further east along the Indus valley. Shey, the old 'summer palace' of the kings of Ladakh, was built about 550 years ago by the first king of Ladakh. From Shey Palace you can see over the fertile Indus plain northeast to Thikse Gompa and over the Indus valley to the Zanskar mountain range to the south.

From Shey I continued eastwards to Thikse Gompa. This 500-year-old monastery, perched on a hill high above the Indus and has the largest number of monks in Ladakh. On the right of the entrance to the main courtyard is a chapel with an enormous 15 mtrs (50 foot) high-seated Buddha figure. About 100 yellow-hat monks belong to Thikse.

The next day, a drive west on the arid and high plateau following the Indus river downstream brought me to Alchi, one of the largest ancient monastic complexes and important Buddhist centre in all of Ladakh. Founded in the 11th century by Rinchen Zhangpo, one of the early Tibetan preachers who brought Tibetan Buddhism to this part of the world, Alchi has recently undergone major restoration work under UN sponsorship. The 1000-year old paintings inside the main temple are some of the oldest of their kind and quite distinct from the murals present in the later built gompas.

On my return towards Leh, the guide made sure that we stopped to see the location where the grey waters of the Indus river meet the blue waters of the Zanskar River flowing from the remote Zanskar region of the Greater Himalaya. A detour from the main road brought us to Likir Monastery (gompa) set on an isolated ridge. This magnificent gompa, overlooking the village of Likir, was founded in the 14th century and the head lama here is the younger brother of the Dalai Lama.

Hemis is perhaps the most important of the monasteries of the Indus valley and was founded about 350 years ago by Stagtshang Rinchen, who was invited to Ladakh by the ruler King Singe Namgyal. Hemis gompa is dramatically hidden in a cleft the mountains and while driving to Hemis, you actually do not see the monastery until you are almost directly in front of it. Hemis also has a gigantic thangka or painted scroll, one of the largest in the world and the most important in Ladakh.

The 10th day (Tsechu) of the Tibetan lunar month is celebrated here as the birthday of Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche), considered to be the founder of Tibetan Buddhism. The Hemis gompa celebrates the event in the form of a two day festival during which the resident Lamas (monks) perform sacred masked dances. The festival in Hemis showcases the best of cultural heritage of the region. Splendid masked dances are performed to the accompaniment of cymbals, drums and long horns. A colourful fair, displaying beautiful handicrafts, is also one of the highlights of the Hemis festival.

Taking a day off from visiting monasteries, I took a half-day jeep tour up the hairpins of the Ladakh Range that stands behind Leh driving along the road to the Nubra Valley to visit the Khardung La Pass located at a height of 5470mtrs (18,400 ft). Khardung La is the highest vehicle accessible pass in the world. The views of the Zanskar Range and the Indus Valley on the way up are amazing as are occasional sightings of yaks on the high pastures below the pass itself. For most visitors, this is perhaps the highest point that they will have travelled to in their lifetime. My week long journey to ‘Little Tibet’ ended the following day and I flew south with a promise to return.

QUICK FACTS:

WHY GO THERE: One of the most culturally disctinct parts of northern India, a trip to Ladakh and the Indus valley will give you an insight into the peace loving Tibetan Buddhist traditions that flourishes in Leh and the villages of this high altitude arid landscape of high snow peaks and brown earth. Festival dates are available on: http://www.reachladakh.com/festival_dates.htm

GETTING THERE: The easiest route is to fly to Leh airport from Delhi or else take the adventurous overland two to three days road trip along the famous Manali-Leh ‘highway’ from Manali in Himachal Pradesh.

WHERE TO STAY: Hotel accommodation and local travel arrangements are best arranged online with Ladakhi tour operators. A list of hotels is available at the official Ladakh Tourism website- http://leh.nic.in/Tourism.htm. Local transport can easily be booked either through your hotel or the local central taxi stand.

Published earlier by MONEYLIFE, the full article can be found here:-


http://www.moneylife.in/article/the-monasteries-of-ladakh/15807.html

Darjeeling: Steaming through the Eastern Himalayas

Steaming Through the Eastern Himalayas

The passenger train to Darjeeling is scheduled to leave New Jalpaiguri railway station at nine every morning. It takes more than an hour to prepare the aging, century-old steam engine for its journey up the slopes of the eastern Himalaya. If you reach the station early, you will find the fireman shovelling coal into the firebox to build up a head of steam while the engine driver adjusts the shiny brass valves.

As the station master rings the platform bell, the Darjeeling Passenger train number 52541 hauled by one of the last remaining steam engines in India pulls away with an throaty whistle, clouds of steam and a shower of coal cinders. The train connects villages spread along the mountain slopes and provides the cheapest means of moving locally grown produce from the villages to the bigger towns of Darjeeling and Siliguri.

I stand near the open door with my feet carefully planted between baskets of fresh spinach and sacks of cabbages hoping to catch both the breeze and the view. It is about 80 kms from the humid plains of north Bengal to Darjeeling, 6800 feet up in the eastern Himalaya and it takes all of seven hours to make the journey.

As the age of steam locomotives comes to a close in India, the Darjeeling Hill Railway’s fan club grows bigger by the day with active chapters as far away as the UK, the US and Canada. The construction of the railway was started by Franklin Prestage in 1879 and completed up to Tindharia in March 1880. By the year end, it was constructed up to Kurseong and the line reached Darjeeling in July 1881.The small town of Tindharia (Three Streams), not far from Jalpaiguri, is home to the pre-industrial workshop where the Darjeeling trains, with names like Mountaineer, Green Hills and Meghdoot, are repaired. All were built between 1892 and 1925 in some long forgotten Glasgow factory.

Darjeeling and the dozens of villages that dot the fertile slopes around it did not exist 175 years ago. By trickery and political manoeuvre, an official of the East India Company acquired the Darjeeling hill from the Chogyal of Sikkim in 1835 and it gradually grew to become the summer retreat of the British.

To return to our journey, the three bright blue carriages attached to the aging Mountaineer overflow with eager Bengali tourists. As we sway and wheeze past Tindharia and Sevoke, the flat rice paddy gives way to the first tea plantations. At this low altitude, only the strong Assam tea varieties grow. The train passes within feet of the houses that line the tracks and young children on the train stick their arms out and playfully touch residents as they go about their chores.

The mainly Nepali speaking people, who inhabit the lower and middle slopes, have a strong tradition of growing flowers. Each of the tiny, tin-roofed dwellings, that precariously sit between the railway track and steep slopes, have neat rows of old Dalda ghee, Amul milk powder and Nestle baby cereal ‘dabbas’ (containers) carefully planted with brightly coloured marigolds, chrysanthemums and nasturtiums.

The thickly forested lower slopes with their towering hardwood trees gives way to the first plantations of the famous Darjeeling tea as we near Kurseong, exactly half way along the journey to Darjeeling. The engine is detached from the carriages and re-supplied with coal and water. The passengers invade the cafeterias on either side for sweet tea, samosas and biscuits.

It is noticeably cooler as we have climbed about 4,800 feet from the plains and the tourists from lowland Bengal don woollen jackets, caps, socks and gloves. Evenings come early in the eastern parts of the country and it is twilight by the time we reach Darjeeling at 4.30 pm and I drive to the warm comfort of the heritage New Elgin hotel. The last 12 kms of the rail line runs beside a road, virtually a race track, packed with drivers of 1950s vintage, British-built Land Rovers and nippy Maruti vans all trying to push each other off the tarmac and into the path of the steadily advancing train.

Darjeeling town is spread along a ridge and on a clear day, the snowy massif of the 28,400 feet high Kanchenjunga and its equally impressive neighbours loom in the distance. The land falls away steeply on either side, planted a century or more ago with mainly tea bushes. The graceful conical Cryptomeria tree, a native of Japan was introduced in Darjeeling in the last century and is now the dominant species that typifies the Darjeeling skyline.

The Lower Bazaar is where the locals shop, a maze of crowded narrow lanes lined with tiny shops. There are steep alleys lined with stores that only sell steel and copper utensils and winding lanes lined with shops full of large sacks of bright coloured spices and lentils. Fruit and vegetable stalls selling the best Assamese pineapples, Sikkimese oranges and crisp fresh vegetables from nearby kitchen gardens, occupy another section of the market. On the other side of Darjeeling are located the Tibetan Refugee Centre and the colourful Bhutia Basti monastery.

Most tourists limit themselves to the 'Mall', a common feature of all Indian hill resorts, where the usual photography and woollen clothing stores are located. The road leading to Chowrasta, the town centre of Darjeeling, is lined with stalls owned by very persuasive Tibetan ladies selling the very latest in brand name clothing, footwear and electronics. The Oxford Book Shop in Chowrasta is one of the best bookstores that I have come across with shelves packed with rare out of print books on the early Himalayan explorations of the area.

I am woken up at 4 a.m. the following morning by the hotel night watchman. I put on a layer of woollens and throw on a cap and gloves before stepping out into the freezing darkness and we drive towards Tiger Hill. The sky is turning pale by the time we cover the 14 kms and start steeply climbing the last few bends to the windy 'view point' where I join a few hundred keen tourists shuffling in the bitter cold, all waiting for the sun to light up Kanchenjunga. It is a grand and spectacular view every bit worth the discomfort of the cold and the effort of the early rise. Someone points out the distant black pyramid of Everest before we drive back visiting Ghoom monastery enroute .

I hire a jeep to Tonglu, a tiny hamlet on the Singalila Ridge, a three hour drive away and 10,000 feet up on a ridge, from where, I am told, there are even better views of Kanchenjunga. The Singalila Ridge runs straight south from Kanchenjunga and forms the natural border between India and Nepal.

The drive is memorable. The rhododendrons are in bloom in May and entire slopes are coloured deep pink and red, broken by the cream and white of the magnolia flowers. The 'road', actually a cobbled stone pony trail now in a state of disrepair, is so steep in sections that our driver needs all the available low gears of his aging four wheel drive jeep to coax it up the last few bends.

Immediately past Tonglu, the dirt road crosses over to the Nepalese side and you arrive in Tumling that has a few comfortable lodges to spend the night.

The first rays of the rising sun strike Kanchenjunga soon after five the next morning. The mountain appears painted in brilliant gold and the views are both impressive and remarkable. The 28,400 feet high mountain lies only 40 kms away and its enormous white bulk fills the western horizon. It is definitely worth the night spent in the simple Tumling lodge.

I return to Darjeeling the next day and drive onwards through tea plantations to Kalimpong and another heritage property, the well known Himalayan Hotel. Kalimpong was once busy with traders from the neighbouring kingdoms of Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Sikkim and the state of Bengal. This market town prospered until the early 1960s when the India-China war sealed the borders and ended the valuable cross-border trade. Kalimpong has since rediscovered itself as the plant and orchid nursery capital of India.

It has been an enjoyable tour. Friendly people, tropical valleys, cultivated green hills and towering snow peaks sums up a little of what I have seen. Gangtok and the sights of Sikkim await another visit to this fascinating part of India.

QUICK FACTS:

WHY GO THERE: One of the most scenic parts of eastern India, a trip to Darjeeling and the neighbourhood will give you an insight into the peace loving blend of Hindu and Buddhist traditions that flourishes in the towns and villages of the mist-shrouded pine and fir forests of this district.

GETTING THERE: The shortest route is to fly to Bagdogra airport or else take an express train to New Jalpaiguri. From both places, private or shared taxis are available for the 90 kms three hours drive to Darjeeling.

WHERE TO STAY: Hotel accommodation and local travel arrangements are best arranged online. A list of hotels is available at the Darjeeling Tourism website- http://www.darjeeling.gov.in/hotel.html. Local transport can easily be booked either through your hotel or a local Darjeeling tour operator.

To read more, please note, this was first published at Moneylife in March 2011
http://www.moneylife.in/article/darjeeling-steaming-through-the-eastern-himalayas/14690.html