DAY 3: MONASTERIES OF THE INDUS VALLEY DAY ONE, Ladakh, India

After the first two days of leisure in Leh, on Day 3 and 4 we embarked upon our brief spiritual journey to visit a number of Tibetan monasteries along Indus River Valley. For both days Hotel Ladakh Greens helped us to organize the itinerary and hire a driver. With six monasteries and one palace in a single day, Day One turned out to be a busy but rewarding day of exploration at the Indus River Valley southeast of Leh. We started early in the morning at around 5:30am in order to arrive on time to watch the morning prayer session at Thiksey Gompa. After Thiksey, we continued to visit Chemrey and Takthok Gompa, the furthest lamaseries of the day. Then we stopped for lunch at Hemis, the largest monasteries in Ladakh. At around 2pm, we left Hemis and headed toward Stakna and Matho, two monasteries atop the rocky hills that perched above the Indus River Valley. Before returning to Leh, we had about an hour to wander around the ruins of Shey Palace, the former summer palace of Ladakh’s royal family. It was already 7pm by the time we arrived back in Leh. In the next four posts we would share our Day One monastery experience with you.

For two full days we ventured out of Leh to explore the monasteries in the Indus River Valley. On the first day, we headed southeast to check out the monastery cluster closer to Leh (places highlighted in orange on the map above). The next day we went further away from Leh at the opposite direction to complete our brief monasterial encounter (places in green on the map above).

Early morning view of Stok Mountain Range on our way to the Thiksey Gompa.

On the road, we encountered many colorfully decorated Tata trucks.

Construction site near Hemis Gompa. Apart from military establishments and Buddhist stupas, construction of buildings with a traditional touch could be found occasionally upon the desert landscape in the middle of nowhere.