India – Part 2 – Little Tibet

Monday, 8/30/2010 – Day 11 – From Delhi to Leh

The second part to my guided tour of India is called "Little Tibet".  Only six of us from the first part of the trip stayed on for this extended jaunt. The Leh-Manali road is 479 km and requires a few overnight stops.  It traverses some of the highest altitude passes in the world, including the Rohtang Pass ("pile of corpses" pass).  As you see the photos along the Rohtang Pass, you'll understand why it was named for the pile of corpses found each spring.

This trip begins in Delhi with an early morning flight to Leh.  Leh was the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ledakh, which is now divided by Pakistan, China and India. The Leh-Manali road passes through the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India.  At the beginning of our stay in Leh, we were informed that only 120 km North, there was an area where China, Pakistan and India stood their respective ground near a glacier, fighting to hold onto their borders with daily gunfire and killing.  The stakes for this conflict are over the water produced by the glacier.  India has it, and both Pakistan and China want it.  Not to mention the conflict over the exiled government of Tibet, seated in Daramsala, India.

Oh, and if the trip doesn't sound challenging enough, there are two more facts to spice things up:

1) Altitude sickness would be a concern for our group, as we would fly directly into Leh (11,562 feet / 3,524 m), without the benefit of gradual acclimation. Oxygen tents would be available in the Leh hospital if needed.

2) A couple weeks prior to our trip to India, Leh was struck by a natural disaster.  A cloudburst fell upon the Leh district, and in less than 15 minutes had started a mudslide and flash flood. Many homes were destroyed and many were killed or reported missing.  As we arrived in Leh, the dead and missing were reported in the hundreds or as many as 1,000. Besides the loss of life, many economic hardships had struck the people of Leh.  We also noticed that telecommunications and transportation were affected.

And, to top it off, I came into this part of the trip feeling very ill.  I slept through the whole plane ride to Leh, while my fellow travelers were ogling the stunning views of the Himalayas.  Baru woke me briefly and urged me to enjoy the view.  I took a few pictures and fell back asleep.  Here's the best picture I got of the Himalayas from above (which shows just how out of sorts I was):


A group of jeeps (really 4-wheel drive Toyota's of some sort) picked us up at the Leh airport and took us to our guesthouse in Leh. By 9:30 AM, I was in bed asleep.  I pretty much slept the day and night away, trying to shake my second illness in a week. 

A little admission of fear: When I was at the Delhi airport waiting to fly to Leh, I wondered if I was crazy for going through with this.  As miserably ill as I felt, I had some major concerns about diving into part 2 of my trip, knowing that it would be cold, high altitude, with risk of altitude sickness layered onto my already uncomfortable state.  It crossed my mind to redirect my flight to Los Angeles rather than Leh.  But, this is one of the major reasons I came to India: walk through the fear of solo world travel, and experience an adventure.  Adventures are uncomfortable (as Bilbo Baggins knows), but they make amazing memories and enrich one's life.  I talked myself back into staying the course.


Day 12 – Flooding and Monasteries of Leh

By Tuesday morning, I was feeling 90% myself and was able to keep up with all of the tour activities.  I escaped the altitude sickness, and thanked myself for staying on track with the tour.  The views were stunning and sobering. 

We first stopped by the road to walk through an area that had been devastated by the floods. Homes half buried in solid dirt (liquefied by the cloud burst), lorries overturned and destroyed, and heartbreaking sights like a jacket embedded in the ground, or a single child's shoe.  We saw childrens' toys among the rubble.  Dogs began to follow us as we walked through the wreckage. Heartbreaking.
 

We moved on down the road, to visit a few monasteries. There were two sights that became common in this district: Prayer Wheels and Chorten. It was common to see a large, public prayer wheel from town to town ("Om Mani Padma Hum" is written on them, a simple prayer.)  We also drove by countless Chorten, in which the possessions of deceased loved ones were entombed.


We stopped off at the site of a meditation and prayer center where the Dalai Lama visits and teaches at times.  It is not his home, but a common site for him to visit.  The grounds were still showing the damages from the recent floods.



Hemis – Our first Tibetan monastery

Next, we visited Hemis, a Buddhist monastery deep in a canyon up in the hills outside of Leh. Our first real taste of Tibetan architecture and religious paintings.
 

All right, so I was a bit shocked at what I learned here.  As I mentioned in my blog post (Waxing Philosphical), I learned that present day Buddhism as practiced in India (and Tibet) is a "tantric" religion.  Meaning that it is highly ceremonial and ritualistic. They believe in multiple deified Buddha's, including one future Buddha, as well as several guardians and many demons.  Buddhism began in India (influenced by Hinduism), moved into Tibet and then returned to India in a different form.  It seems that the Buddhism that returned to India was infused with Hindu themes.  For example, the next three pictures below depict three of the four guardian kings of Mount Sumeru, the center of the idealized mythical world of Hindus and Buddhists. Now, I'm far more curious to learn about the various forms of Buddhism practiced in other parts of the world.


It is challenging to see in this resolution, but if you blow this image up (click on it), you might see the wheel of life.  It shows the various stages of life, reincarnation, and progress towards enlightenment.  It's interesting to see the black path which leads to hell, and the light path that leads to nirvana.


Stepping inside of the temple at the Hemis monastery was a bit haunting and surreal.  The benches where monks pray and read scripture were dormant, with the exception of one nun, who was chanting and burning incense.  I felt an ignorant intruder in her world of worship and meditation.  These temples were typically either completely unlit or had one lonely and dim light bulb somewhere ineffectively placed for illumination.  I'm amazed that my camera was able to pick anything up without a flash.  (By the way, no shoes and no flash please.  This was true of all temples, Hindu or Buddhist.  The Hindu temples also required no leather.)



Thiksey – Tibetan monastery # 2

We moved on and drove for about an hour or so to our next site. Up on a high hilltop, Thiksey had a fantastic view of the surrounding country. We climbed the many switchback steps up to the temple and started to see some familiar sights.
 

First, there was a giant prayer wheel with a bell to which we each gave a little spin.  This became a fairly common sight throughout Ledakh. Next, we saw depictions of the guardian kings of the four directions (N, S, E, W) and another painting of the wheel of life.  This one had only 5 sections rather than 6. (Still not sure why the difference, or if it matters).  There's also a pretty nice description of the wheel of life.  (Click it to enlarge and read.)
 

Once inside the temple, it also looked familiar.  Very peaceful.  I'm not sure I'd get much studying done in there; I'd feel so restful, I'd want to sleep.  Our tour leader told us about the three main factions of Indian & Tibetan Buddhism: black hat, red hat and yellow hat.  Looking it up online, it appears that there are a few more distinctions as well, but the three colored hats are what foreigners can typically remember.  The Dalai Lama heads the Yellow Hat sect (Gelugpa), which seems to have the most expansive view (they pray for everything in the universe, whereas the other two pray for all humanity [black hat] or for all living beings [red hat]). I'm sure there's way more to it than that, but good enough for a little tour of a few monasteries.
 

I was quite impressed with the 10 m high golden statue of the future Buddha. It was very ornate and quite beautiful. We entered on the second floor, sitting at head-level with the statue.  We didn't go down to the first floor to view the legs.  I asked why they didn't build the building as one floor with an open floor plan so that visitors could enjoy the whole Buddha at once.  I was told that they didn't have the architecture available to make a two story, open structure using the materials common in Tibetan / Indian construction during that time. Besides, viewing the Buddha in pieces can represent the enormity of what the Buddha represents, such that it may be difficult to fathom the entire thing at one time.
 


Shey Palace – One last stop

Finally, we drove back towards Leh and stopped at the Shey Palace.  For me, one of the highlights was getting a view of one of the monks' actual living quarters (picture #4 below).  The artwork was beautiful (but older than both Hemis and Thiksey). 


By the end of the day, I was wiped out and ready for bed. Still feeling better and no more fever or aches, but on the mend for sure.  We stayed the night in a guest house in Leh once again.