Leh Palace and Monastery Circuit

Descending further back we took a turn for the Leh Palace. This nine-storied crumbled structure that towers over the Leh old quarter was the residence of Royal family of Ladakh. But today it is in ruins I must say. The place was dusty and in a mess when we entered inside. Renovation work is on and will take a year or two or more, I guess. Walls of the palace are built in a way that base area of the palace is more than the roof area. So from outside it appears that the walls are sloping downwards & outwards. Walls, however, were already plastered but still a lot of work remained to be completed. The moment you look at it, the thing which instantly catches your attention is the number of Balconies in the Palace, beautifully streaked over each other. In its unpainted avatar it looked more of a ‘Chocolate Palace’.

In the evening we visited Shanti Stupa, built with Japanese aid. Dalai Lama commissioned it in 1985, which makes it pretty recent. The view from Stupa is stupendous and we spent one of our quietest evenings there, gazing at the spotlit Namgyal hill by the setting Sun, Leh township and evening sky’s myriad hues.

We set out early for the Stok Palace next morning. Stok Palace, Matho Gompa and Hemis Gompa are on the other side of the Indus. We crossed the Indus river at Choglamsar. The impressive presence of this early nineteenth century four-storey building made us sight it from little further after crossing Indus. Entrance of the palace is from behind and the way to it goes past a small village, huge chortens and mani walls. As we entered the palace, we were asked to park the vehicle outside the boundary. We meekly complied. Architecturally, the palace appeared to be a mediocre residence with the emphasis on making more rooms inside. In fact, there are more than 70 rooms. Stok has a rich stock (collection) of royal holdings/possessions, all preserved in a in-house museum. There is a fee to view it!

I found my way to the roof of palace. Cool breeze under the warmth of morning sunshine felt so much soothing while I stood in awe for five minutes soaking in the variety of views – a peculiar mix of terraced fields, the lunar landscape, snow clad peaks of barren mountains veiling the horizon, a field of Chortens. Taking a few snaps, we receded from Stok to the road skirting Indus to visit Matho Monastery.

Matho village and the Gompa are situated in a deep furrow between the ridges of Stok-kangri massif. The place looked exotic and here I wish to inform you that Matho we both liked the most out of a dozen monasteries we visited during our trip. ‘Fall’ made it even more beautiful. Several streams that meandered through the place completed the picture-perfect locations. Strangely, Matho is less visited when compared to visits to its immediate geographic cousins, Stok, Stakna and Hemis! If I understood what the Lama at the Matho & Chemrey (we visited chemrey later in the day) monasteries told me then there are several sects in the Buddhism which were formed after its enrichment in Tibet. Matho Gompa is the only institution in the Ladakh which represents Sakyapa sect. Oracle festival of this 16th century Gompa is very popular and perhaps only during that time this tiny village receives a few visitors from outside Ladakh. We, the dwellers of a typical city, found the peace all pervading and harmony intricately interwoven throughout Ladakh, especially at places like Matho. Quite incidentally, the photograph of Matho Gompa turned out to be the best of the seven rolls that we exposed during the entire trip.

Then we reached Stakna Gompa. As told by the priest there, Stakna means tiger’s nose in Tibetan language. The hill on which the Gompa is situated is in the shape of a ‘leaping tiger’. It is on the left bank of River Indus, that is the same side Matho, Stok and Hemis are on. Views from the roof we had were immensely captivating and thrilling. Hill is quite steep and very unusual in its shape. We biked round the Gompa to view it from all its sides. Hence, a blowed up framed print of an image we took of the Gompa hangs in my bedroom!

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