Leh and Stakna
Gompa, Ladakh, India (August 2024)
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The main
purpose of all my trips to Ladakh has been trekking. However, on most trips, I
also spent a few days in and around Leh, first to acclimatize, and then, at the
end of the trips, to fill up the reserve days I had set aside in my planned
schedules in case of bad weather or other issues occurring while trekking. On
those days, I usually visited various places in and around Leh. To see photos of such places from previous
trips, click on the following links:
- 2016: Leh, Sock,
Matho, Chemre, Takthok, Hemis
To see photos
taken in August 2024, scroll down this page.
Leh:
A classic
acclimatization walk in Leh is to climb Tsemo Hill,
where Tsemo Fort and Tsemo
Gompa stand next to each other, overlooking most of the town of Leh. The walk passes by the massive Leh Palace.
Below are photos taken along this walk.
View over
the old neighborhood of Leh below the Leh Palace.
Leh Palace.
View of the
Shanti Stupa from the hiking trail above the Leh Palace.
View over a
portion of Leh, the upper part of the Leh Palace, and an old fortification
tower.
Tsemo Gompa
(left) and Tsemo Fort (right) seen from the hiking
trail.
View of Leh
and the Indus valley (at the foot of the mountain range) from Tsemo Gompa.
Statues,
painting, and puja drum in Tsemo Gompa and Fort.
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Stakna gompa:
At the end
of the trip, Sonam Dawa and I went to the Stakna
gompa to attend the morning puja of the local monks, a visit that Sonam Dawa
had arranged with the head lama of the gompa. This Buddhist monastery of the Drugpa sect stands prominently on a hill next to the Indus
river, 13km southeast of Leh's center.
View of Stakna gompa in the early morning.
Colorful
wall paintings in the gompa.
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Left: Wheel
of Life painted on a wall of the gompa. Right: Close-up of the lower part of
the painting.
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Old relics,
wall paintings, and statues in a prayer room of the gompa. The photo on the
right shows a sacred statue of Arya Avalokiteshvara, which was donated to the
gompa by the people of Kamrup in Assam.
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During the
puja.
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India 2024 travel page | Return to my mountaineering/trekking/travel webpage