Mahayana or Buddhist Tibetan gompas (monasteries) dominate the Ladakh landscape. They are still active places of worship and teaching.
Colorfully clad with flags and wheels relaying prayers through the breeze, they’ve become popular tourist attractions with their shrines and stupas embellished with ancient colorful frescoes.
Gompas usually have a caretaker monk on site who finds visitors and shows them around for an expected donation of 10 to 20 rupiahs. Some gompas provide cheap accommodation for determined students of Buddhism.
Guidelines when visiting a gompa are:
- Your arms and legs should be covered;
- Remove your shoes before entering a shrine;
- Don’t drink, smoke or spit.
- Never touch religious objects.
- Don’t disturb monks during prayers, including festival ceremonies.
- Never use a camera flash , the frescoes are very fragile.
- Always pass chortens (Tibetan for stupa), mani walls (Tibetan stone walls with sacred inscriptions) and prayer wheels in a clockwise direction, keeping them to your right.
From Leh which served as our homebase, we visited the Sankar Gompa which is two (2) kilometers from the north of the town center.
The upstairs part of this Gompa belongs to the Gelupka order which has the image of Avalokitesvara, the Buddhist deity of compassion with 1000 arms and 1000 heads.
We visited also the Tiksi Gompa which is seven (7) kilometers from Leh. This is also under the Gelupka order. It is part of the former palace of the king of Ladakh with the nice overview of the Indus Valley.
We also saw the Hemis Gompa which is forty five (45) kilometers from Leh and was founded on the 17th century. My companion due to severe stomach ache failed to accompany me to my whole day trip to Lake Sudan which would pass through the Himalaya range.
Although it would be an unchivalrous move on my part as I would be leaving a sick female companion in a strange place, I just asked the Divine Providence to allow me to go due to the enormity of the travel cost involved which had already been paid for and that I would be foregoing a perceived once-in-a-lifetime experience and sight.
The sight was something to behold with high mountain ranges with oases in many places. Luckily, everything went well as she recovered due to the frequent visitation of male doctors, male travel agents providing jocular stories and even waiters offering food assistance. When I arrived, the male waiter even asked permission from me thinking I was her dad for a picture taking with her (which could be too close for comfort). I took everything in strides though I have a bit resentment to the waiter who was too presumptuous.
My past experience at the Kashmir airport was repeated at the Ladakh airport while checking in for our departure. Tour groups despite their late arrival were given preferential attention thus our tour guide (who is a shorter version of Dustin Hoffman) had difficulty of asserting our right.
My important carry-on bag containing valuable documents could not be found for about twenty (20) minutes thus adding to the anguish and confusion.
Thanks God we survived the ordeal. Reminiscing the historical importance, beauty and abundance of the Indus Valley overwhelms the negative experiences we have had.
