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Book
this Tour |
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Ladakh
-> Stok -> Samkar Gompa -> Leh Palace ->
Shey -> Thiksey -> Hemis -> Ladakh |
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| Day
- 01 |
Arrive
Leh, transfer to hotel. Overnight in hotel. Afternoon walking tour of the city to get
acclimatize.
LADAKH:
Ladakh is far too kaleidoscopic to be dismissed
with a string of platitudes. Its people, even the
meanest peasant, are imbued with a culture handed
down from generation to generation for thousands
of years. Ladakh is the most interesting country
to visit that one could possible imagine. It
fulfils almost all the expectations of the
traveler who is prepared to see it through his own
eyes, to experience it through his own emotions,
to comprehend it through his own sensibility. |
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| Day
- 02 |
STOK:
Visible in the distance, at the top of a huge moraine of
pebbles swept down from the mountains, the elegant
four-story STOK Palace stands above barley terraces
studded with threshing circles and whitewashed
farmhouses. Built early in the nineteenth century by the
last ruler of independent Ladakh. |
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SAMKAR
GOMPA : the seat of the yellow Hat Sect and one of
the few gompas built in the valley bottom, is a 3 km.
Pleasant walk through fields. It houses the chief lama
of Spituk and 20 others. The newer monks quarters are on
three sides of the courtyard with steps leading up to
the Du-Khang ( Assembly Hall ). There are a number of
gold statues, numerous wall paintings and sculptures
including a large one of the 11 headed, 1000-armed
Avalokitesvara.
LEH PALACE
: Looking for all the world like a miniature version of
the Potola in Lhasa, Tibet, the Palace was built in the
16th century.
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| Day
- 03 |
Fullday
sightseeing with guide and pack lunch to visit HEMIS /
THIKSEY and SHEY
monasteries.
Shey
: The old summer Palace of the kings of Ladakh, Shey (
15 km. From Leh towards Hemis ) was built more than 550
years ago by Lhachen Palgyigon, the king of Ladakh. It
stands next to the remains of a larger construction on
the east side of a hill, which runs south-east towards
the Indus. From the Palace you can see over the fertile
Indus plain, north-east to the Thiksey Gompa and over
the Indus to the Zanskar mountain range. Hundreds of
Chortens of the most diverse from and size stand on the
barren plains to the north, separated from the fertile
riverbank along the Hemis road. The old palace Gompa has
the largest golden Buddha statue in Ladakh.
Thiksey
: The 500 year old Thiksey monastery, perched on a hill
high above the Indus has about 100 yellow cap monks. On
the right of the entrance to the main courtyard, a new
chapel houses an enormous 15 meter high, seated Buddha
figure. The morning prayer can be witness around 6 AM,
but there are also prayers closer to noon, preceded by
long mournful sounds from the horns on the roof. The
monastery mountain is best ascended on foot although
there is also a new road up to the monastery. The temple
of Zan-la is beside the car parking area on this road.
On the walls of the Gompa courtyard are some interesting
Tibetan calendars. In the chapel is a picture near the
central Chamba statue, of Tsung-Khapas, the founder of
the Tugend ( Gelupa ) sect. Some steps run up to a roof
balcony from which there is access to the rooms of the
head lama.
HEMIS:
It is the wealthiest , best known and biggest Gompa of
Ladakh. Its popularity stems from the major annual
festival held here in summer. The festival is in honor
of Guru Padma
Sambhav’s birth anniversary. It also has
the largest Thanka in Ladakh, which is unfurled once in
12 years ( next
in 2004 ). Hemis was built in 1630 during the reign
of Sengge Namgyal , an illustrious ruler of Ladakh. It
flourished under the Namgyal dynasty for the royalty
favored for Drugkpa Sect, which managed the monastery.
It is divided into two, the Assembly Hall on the
right and the main temple on the left. The hall, Dukhang,
is also used as a ‘ Green room ’ by the dancers
during the festival. The temple is known as Tshogkhang.
The verandahs have a surfeit of frescoes among them
the Buddhist Wheel
of Life (
Kalachakra ) and the Lord
of the four quarters, besides rows of prayer wheels.
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| Day
- 04 |
Departure
transfer to the airport for flight to Delhi / Jammu /
Chandigarh or Srinager.
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