A Tour of Northern Humla, Nepal (September-October 2014)
Stage 8: Sidetrip to Raling Gompa
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After returning to Simikot, I had a few more days to spare before returning to Kathmandu. So, I decided to go to Raling Gompa, the oldest and most revered gompa in the Simikot area, as well as the site of a major Buddhist festival (Saga Dawa).
Terraced fields below the Simikot plateau.
Several trails lead to Raling Gompa from Simikot (our path is shown in blue dotted line in the map above), each crossing a few scenic villages.
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Most villages produce delicious apples, red and green.
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Water-propelled flour mills used to grind various types of locally grown grains (barley, buckwheat ...). Worn-out and broken grindstones are recycled to build small bridges (right). Flour is often later roasted into tsampa, a Tibetan staple food.
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Beautiful paintings in a chorten. The photos of the deities at the top of this page were also taken in this chorten.
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A small gompa along the way.
Raling Gompa (at approximately 4000m). Like Yansi Gompa it lies in a cold place and stays in the shade a large fraction of the day.
Main facade of Raling Gompa.
Deities displayed inside the gompa.
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In fact, the main building is a relatively new structure. The old original gompa (very small) is located under the big rock shown in the photo below.
Intriguing deities in the old gompa.
A room for meditation under another rock outside the gompa (Dawa′s photo on the right).
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A sacred rock believed to be a dog near the gompa.
