Day 2: Leh

Shey

 We planned to visit the monasteries on the outskirts of Leh today. The ones we wanted to visit were Hemis, Tikse, Shey and Stok. In addition to Am and me an American girl named Je also joined us. We rented a car together and left the homestay at 9.30 in the morning. First we visited Hemis monastery. The road to Hemis went through the amazing landscape of Ladakh. Blue skies and multi coloured barren mountains surrounded the road to Hemis. At some point the road ran parallel to the Indus river. It is beyond words to describe the beauty of the landscape.
 
Hemis is the biggest and the richest monastery in Ladakh and it took around an hour to reach there. It is the first Buddhist monastery that I ever visited in my life. It was constructed in the 12^th century. The multi-storeyed building included the main prayer hall and a huge statue, about 12 m long, of Guru Padmasambhava. There is also a museum which showed the different statues, tools and tanka from the earlier times. We spend about 2 hours there, walking around the monastery and taking photos.

Next we visited the monastery at Tikse. This was definitely the most beautiful of the 4 monasteries that we visited today.  The large gompa rested on the top of hill which can be seen from far away. It was a beautiful sight to see. The highlight of the monastery is the 15 m tall statue of Maitreya (future Buddha). It is definitely one of the most beautiful statues of Buddha that I have seen. The rest of the monastery was similar in architecture like Hemis, though on a smaller scale. From the top of the monastery one can get a good view of the surrounding landscape. After visiting the monastery we took the dinner at the restaurant attached to the monastery.

From there we went to Shey which is on the way to Leh. Shey was the capital of the old Ladakh. The Shey palace includes a Buddha temple and a stupa topped with gold. From the top of the palace one gets a good view of the surrounding area which includes many stupas spread over the landscape.

Our last stop was the palace at Stok where the royal family currently lives. The palace includes a museum where the impressive crown of the queen is exhibited among other things. Though small in size the palace is surrounded by mind blowing landscape. There is a café at the entrance of the palace which overlooks the beautiful landscape. We all had a chai there, relaxing and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. Wish I could stay there longer.

On the way back to the homestay we got down at the town to have dinner. Once again a long and tiring day, but also wonderful and interesting!