Mangyu and Tsatsapuri temple near Alchi

In our hotel in Alchi, breakfast was better than in Leh. We had muesli and fruit, toast, apricot jam and egg omelets. Then we got into the jeeps again to drive to Mangyu, another monastery that is located in a valley that didn’t have any road leading to it until 14 years ago and where there is a bus that drives there once a week.
For our tour today, a professor from Austria who has been working in Ladakh as an architect, joined us and explained some things as well. In Mangyu we also met a young woman who was in charge of the renovation works that were currently being done. She explained that the most important thing of a monastery like the one here or any other building with paintings was the roof. If the roof leaks, the paintings get destroyed. She showed us some wooden parts which they had replaced and we saw people working in the temple.

Two were just making a new courtyard which would allow the water to flow down instead of into the temple.Inside we weren’t allowed to take any pictures because the paintings are very fragile.
We walked down the road we had come up with the jeeps. On our way we were fascinated by all the different rocks and mountain forms.
For lunch we had Italian and American food: really good french fries, maccaroni, spaghetti and vegetables. And after a short rest we had tea and then walked up the hill to see Tsatsapuri, a temple that is somehow a secret tip. It is a private building and therefore we were allowed to take as many pictures as we wanted. We saw many beautiful paintings and some rare mandalas. One was not symmetrical but had five smaller mandalas in the middle which represented the five forms of the Buddha. Another mandala had eight entrances instead of the typical four.

A very rare mandala

On our way down we met some sheep and cows that were running around freely.

Now lunch and tomorrow we ware getting up early to avoid the midday sun when hiking.

Likir monastery and Alchi

Earlier than in the past days we had breakfast. We packed our things together and our drivers put them into and onto the jeeps. Then we left Leh to drive west. For a long time we passed by military areas. There are 30 000 soldiers in Ladakh to defend the country against Pakistan and China who both occupied parts of the land. Our guide said that there is going on some kind of cold war between China and India because of that. To understand why China claims Ladakh, one must know that Ladakh agreed to accept the Dalai Lama as its religious leader. When China invaded Tibet, it thought that Ladakh also belonged to Tibet and therefore now to China.
While we drove, we sometimes passed diversions that leaded around parts of the street that were washed away with the flood last year. Now there are street workers (very often women, sometimes they even bring their kids) who build it up again.
One photo point we had was the joining of the Indus and Zanskar river. The latter freezes completely over in winter and people use it as a road to Leh.

The first monastery we visited was Likir. It is famous for its huge sitting Buddha statue. It was a pity that it is renovated at the moment and we couldn’t see its full beauty. In the courtyard of the monastery there were some of the oldest prayer wheels in Ladakh. They are still in use today (I turned them too :-) ). Inside the assembly hall, there was a seat reserved for the brother of the Dalai Lama who had been the leader of this monastery and some others. But after some time he decided to give up his life as a monk and lives a “normal life” since. He is working for his brother actually. The funny thing is that on his seat there is a picture of him as a boy because today he is not wearing the monk robe anymore.
Another explanation we got was about the wheel with deers on each side. The wheel symbolizes the whole Buddhist teaching while the deer remind the viewer of Buddha’s first teaching which he gave in a deer park.

We left the monastery and after some minutes of driving, we were left by the drivers and went on by foot. We walked down a dry valley which looked like an American canyon. It was very hot and there was hardly any shade to cool down. It took us approximately two hours to reach Saspol, a quite large village. There we met some children who just did the washing up. This was the liveliest village we saw so far.
The road to Alchi had some very bad parts but we eventually reached our destination. We had a really, really good lunch at the hotel and got our rooms that are more clean and nicer than those in Leh. But power seems to fail from time to time because we got a candle and matches too!

After a short rest, we met again to visit Alchi’s monastery. There are only four monks living here because when Likir was built, most moved there. But in this monastery there are some real treasures. There are statues of seven meters height and thousand year old paintings that cover all walls. One building resembles a 3D-mandala. Unfortunately, you aren’t allowed to take any pictures inside, so I can’t share this amazing place with you. The photograph I took is from the inside of a stupa that also has the mandala style.
We again learned loads about Buddhism and I find it very complicated to differ between all those gods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, arias and siddhas. And the problem is that the same person can be painted in over 20 ways!

So now we’re looking forward to some more excellent food for dinner and then I’ll write some post cards. Finally. :)