Himalayan Saga- VII

After the non stop action of 6 days, I woke up with a severe headache on Day 7. We set aside the day for a bit of relaxation. We only had to make the journey of 50km from Lossar to Kaza. We visited the gompa in Lossar before starting the journey. Long roads through plains and hills lay between us and Kaza. I have only one memory from the day's trip- the creatures which looked like half horse-half cow or half yak-half cow and having a horse's tail. Guess the cows, yaks and horses of this area are busy indulging in adultery of the worst kind.

the cute little girl whom we met at the cafe in Kaza

Raja made a good rapport with girl

the highest retail petrol outlet in the world

the monastery at kaza

Kaza, the headquarters of Spiti valley is in a better state compared to Lossar in that the power supply here comes on for one hour everyday, in the evening. We had to call home urgently considering our last call was 2 days back. The STD booths were all closed owing to a bandh. We spotted a BSNL office there and the gentleman allowed us to call home. He refused to accept the money that we offered. Yet another of those good hearted men that we met during this trip. Night time in Kaza was a flurry of activity as the market came alive with booths and cafes filling up with tourists. Kaza also has the world's highest retail petrol outlet.

Day 8. The day started with us retracing last day's path and deviating to the road leading to kibber village. Kibber is the second highest village in the world. Its densely populated with the houses made of stone having identical appearances. Owing to lack of time, we couldn't take a tour around the village, but we had made sure that we'll be back here once again. As you travel down from this village, you will reach the Ki monastery. It is an imposing structure that stands alone among the hills. It has a history of about 1000 years and is filled with old murals. Traditional Buddhist music was heard from a prayer hall inside, where we didn't have entry. We caught sight of rain falling on a hill far away.

Kibber village from far away...at the foot of the hills..

Kibber village

Kibber...upclose

the typical houses in Kibber village

a village woman calls out to her companion as they gets ready for the day's work in Kibber..

Ki monastery..

Ki monastery..up close

the entry to ki monastery

We passed Kaza and rode on to Dhankar monastery. The roads at many places were destroyed because of the floods. The river had changed its course at many places and submerged the old road. Dhankar proved to be the highlight of our monastery hopping spree. Sitting amidst a mud like formation, this majestic structure simply took us to another world. The road to the monastery looked dangerous and only precision driving will take you till the gates. Owing to the location and its age of almost 1200 years(which makes it one of the oldest monasteries in the world), Dhankar is facing the grave danger of getting destroyed if heavy rains happen. An initiative called 'Save Dhankar' was launched recently to save this wonderful monument. A friendly monk who was cracking jokes every other minute, took us around the monastery. It was sad to see them putting up for sale old instruments and plates, all to raise money to save Dhankar. There was a dark room up above, used for meditation. That ought to be one of the quietest rooms I've ever entered into in my life. There's a special chair used by the Dalai Lama in another of the rooms. Filled with old scriptures, original paintings and manuscripts dating back to a 1000 years, this place is a real treasure trove, if there ever was one. It almost feels like the roof of the world, dwarfing everything else in its vicinity. Just hope and pray that this amazing place will remain like this forever.

Dhankar monastery...seen from the road....monastery is at the left, on top of those mud formations

dhankar...up close

rain approaching...a heavy rain can mean the end of Dhankar

rise up..dhankar

dhankar..another view

the entry to dhankar

dhankar

Our stop for the day was Tabo, a small village famous for the monastery of the same name. More on that alongwith the news from day 9.

your crusader Praveen