Day 5 - 28 June 2011 (Leh to Lamayuru)

10pm - Leh blacked out for the whole of last night. I had thought that only our hotel was suffering from a black out but apparently, much of the capital of Ladakh was affected by it. Nonetheless, we had managed to charge the camera batteries t

Today, we'll be heading out to Lamayuru, a township with the Nimjanpu Monastery as its centre of activities. The monastery will be having 2 days of prayer festivals consisting of long hours of chanting and the display of the various religious artifacts via an hour long dance (also called the Chaam) and chants. The only other monastery to have its prayer festival in summer is the Hemis Monastery. The Hemis festival is very well known for travellers and many descend to Leh to catch the full revelry of the costumes, masks and religious artifacts. Every 12 years, a giant thangka (a painting of a Tibetan god) gets displayed and it adorns the full length of the monastery's walls. However, Isaac and Jocelyne described the festival as a football match with much jostling with the crowd for prime spots in catching the festival. The lesser known Lamayuru festival would be an ideal festival to get acquainted with Tibetan Buddhism festivals in this region, with lesser crowds and possibly closer interaction with the lamas.

The distance to Lamayuru from Leh is about 60km and we plan to stop as and when we wanted to along the way. We intend to watch the festival activities tomorrow and then make our way to Leh to plan for the next trip out.

A short drive of 60km is fraught with road repair teams and landslides

Getting local snacks at a checkpoint.  Checkpoints are especially critical in the border regions to monitor traffic flow and more importantly, illegal foreign infiltrators

You never know when the roof comes falling

The Ladakhis mending the roads and tending to their children at the same time

Our first stop is at Likhir Monastery, midway between Leh and Lamayuru. This scenic gompa (monastery) also contains a museum which keeps old thangkas and other artifacts the gompa and come across in its time. The thangkas date back to 500 years old while other artifacts like weighing scales, ancient currencies, weapons (from a 18 century gun to a chain linked armour worn by the king) and religious items (from chanting scrolls to horns) occupy a small but well displayed room. The gompa also boasts a Maitreya Buddha statue sitting out in the harsh Himalayan conditions. It was a pity that there were no guides to explain the murals and paintings on the walls of the gompa as the intricate and detailed murals seem to tell a thousand stories and the philosophy behind their teachings.

Detour to Likhir Gompa

View of the plains below Likhir Gompa

Ancient architecture - wooden pillars and beams across doorways (most certainly reinforced with modern materials like cement)

The biggest Maitreya open air statue in Ladakh until a newer one in Diskit unseated it (no pun intended)

Guest book in Likhir's musuem

Ladakhi dumplings

Ever favorite mint tea

We reached the Nimjanpa gompa at about 3pm and Tundup had ensured us rooms in a guest room in the gompa itself. The gompa seemed to be a hive of activity and we wondered if the festival had just ended. As we unpacked, I heard the familiar sound of Tibetan horns blaring in the air, then Jocelyne rushed into our room announcing that their room has got the best view of the festival which was taking place now! Indeed, the dance was just taking place just in font of their room! I had not noticed it before that we were actually staying at the previous accommodation for the lamas, which had been converted into a guesthouse!

The dance had just started in the courtyard and there were many people (both local and tourists) sitting at its perimeter catching the festival up close. As the lamas, fully adorned with the gods' clothings and masks twirled and jumped, the rest of the crowd was caught in a spell-binding trance.

Even the dancers were in a trance!

The boys with the longhorns and gyalings (trumpets)

Foreigners and locals taking in the Chaam. Novelty Vs Spirituality

A dance that repeated itself for almost 3 hours!

Round and round they go

The gongs, horns, tibetan trumpets and chants reverberate around the courtyard through the highs and lows of the dance. There were times when the trough of a chant had the lamas standing still, before suddenly bursting into life again. Again, there were no explanations about the dance but the spectacle was more than enough for us to absorb.

the temple boys come out again to signal the end of the chaam

And the deities ceremoniously take turns to perform their final dance.....

and spins away.. The spins are high energy movements and seem critical to the chaam. Never an easy thing to do when you're 3000m above sea level

It would be a hour and a half later before the dance and chants end. The lamas then begun a ceremony to lead the sacred masks and the god's artifacts to the main prayer hall. The masks were wrapped in a red cloth Nd each lama carried one as they trudged to the main prayer hall. Ordinary "Tibetan" locals would stand in 2 lines with their heads bowed as each lama, each carrying one mask walk between the lines of devotees touching their heads with the blessed masks.

The deities' masks are brought back to the main gompa

and the worshippers respectfully line up and bow for the masks. A very powerful sight to behold.

The spell-binding dance ended but we were not done yet. After filling up the stomachs, we headed to Lamayuru to explore the town and also hopefully catch the gompa in its full glory, basking in the setting sun. We were hampered by dark clouds obscuring the sun rays but at least we'd done a relaxing walk to acclimatize to the treks that are coming up next week.

the Gompa viewed from Lamayuru

Lamayuru viewed from the Gompa

We spoke briefly to a lama, who had been to Singapore to preach and he told us that there will be a dance in the morning at 630am while the chanting (punja) will take place in the main prayer hall at 10am and that we were welcome to see it.

Looks like another packed day of exploring the gompa and really can't wait to see it again!

But before we could leave for the night, how could miss the chance to check out these bikers parked right outside our hotel entrance!

driving there would be quite a nice experience, to say the least

Can't wait to get our hands on the bikes in a couple of days time!