Our day started
early. After having a light diarrhea at night, I thought about
whether it was a good idea to get up at ten past five, but I decided
that I probably won’t have the chance again, so I rolled out of
bed, got dressed and joined the others in the dining hall. They had
tea but I just dared to drink some hot water.
One of our
drivers was the “unlucky” one who had to get up early as well.
Five of the group members, the driver and our guide squeezed into one
of the jeeps and off we went. The streets weren’t as empty as one
would expect them to be shortly past six. The first shops opened,
people washed themselves and brushed their teeth.
We arrived at
Thikse monastery. Few other tourists were here as well. We also met
two camera teams, one of them from the Hessischer Rundfunk. Our guide
led us to a terrace on the top of the monastery that is – surprise
– built on a hill. After this morning sport we were rewarded with a
short concert of two horn players who called the monks to the morning
prayer, which is called Punja in Ladakh. They called three times and
then we could sit down in the assembly hall and watch the morning
ceremony. And listen too. Especially the young novices chanted their
mantras loudly and were very eager with reading them from their
books. Several times, they offered butter tea and tsampa to the other
monks and some of the visitors who had brought their own bowl. I was
busy with taking pictures (without flash of course!) and filming a
bit. It sounded different but beautiful too. Funny thing was that two
of the monks at the end of the ceremony had kind of a battle. Both
sang very loudly and it seemed that everyone wanted to do it better
than the other. Inbetween, there were songs with drums, horns and
cymbals.
When the monks
had finished, two of the young boys cleaned the floor and we had a
closer look at the statues in the assembly hall. The rest of the
group had arrived and our guide explained some more about the
monastery. Its first parts were built in 15th century and
there are parts added every year, so this is a growing monastery!
We had
breakfast in the monastery’s restaurant and then walked up again to
see the shrines. In one of them we saw the very famous statue of
Buddha Matreya that has become “the face of Ladakh” and is to be
found on the cover of our guide book. It is so huge that you have to
go to the second floor to see its face.
Also, we again
learned about the wheel of life, this time about the outer circle. It
was very interesting but too complicated to explain here. If you are
interested in it, google it up. :-P
It started to
rain a bit when we drove on to Shey. Shey is the former capital of
Ladakh and still has a palace next to the monastery. There you can
find a stupa which is too big to fit onto a picture and which has a
golden top. We also saw another famous statue made of brass, copper
and gold. It is the only of its kind and as tall as the one in
Thiksey. The best thing was that we were allowed to walk around the
base of the statue, which our guide never before did with a group. We
weren’t prepared that the room where the statue was based was
completely dark. So it was rather funny feeling the way around it in
darkness. We went clockwise of course and afterwards we were happy to
see light again.
We got to know
that the closing ceremony of the Ladakh Festival was not in the
afternoon but right now instead. So we went straight to the polo
ground. For me, this was a bit of a problem because I hadn’t
brought another battery for my camera and the one I had was already
low. So not many photos of the ceremony...
To get in, men
and women had to queue in different lines and were controlled
exactly. Well, not that exactly because luckily nobody noticed my
pocket knife. But we had to prove that our cameras were real and no
bombs!
Our guide got
us good places where all the dancers passed by when entering and
leaving the stage. They wore very beautiful traditional clothes, the
women had hats with lots of turquoise on it (that are called Perak),
the men sometimes had swords or little shrines with a picture of the
Dalai Lama. It was great to watch and to hear the music too.
Unfortunately, the dancers danced for the important minister on the
other side on the field, so we just saw their backs...
We left when
the last dance started to avoid the crowd that would form as soon as
the ceremony was over. On the way to our lunch, Annetraud and I
stopped by in a shop to buy a blanket. We started a conversation with
the young shop keeper and found out that he was Tibetan but born in
India. He was very smart and knew a lot about Buddhism and about
Europe too. He even estimated the population of Austria correctly!
Other people we met here mixed up Austria and Australia... The
Tibetan showed us some of his CDs and we ended up buying some of them
and a DVD too. We hope that they will work at home. :)
So now we had
lunch and my stomach seems to be fine with that. I guess that the
apple juice yesterday evening was a rather bad idea... Luckily, I’m
not really ill and I will not have any problems with flying to Delhi
tomorrow morning (departure at 5:40am and being at the airport two
hours in advance!!!) and then to go on to Agra by bus. It will be
hard but worth it, I’m looking forward to another culture and
climate shock and to meet the “real” India and the Islamic India
in Agra and Delhi.
I hope that the
hotels then will have WiFi or internet so that I’m no longer
dependent on those Cybercafes which, as my favorite here in Leh, can
close at any time.
Leaving Ladakh
feels strange. I somehow got used to this country. It will be hard to
say “Namaste” instead of “Julee” and I will miss the monks in
the streets, the stupas and the prayer wheels. But India is more than
Ladakh. I was a bit sad today when our guide said that we should take
off our shoes for the last time, that this was the last time he is
shooing us up to a monastery. Everything comes to an end. That’s
what Buddhism teaches and that’s what happens all life long.
So good-bye
Ladakh and hello Agra!
