ACCLIMATIZING BUT BUSY DAY IN LEH - LADAKH JOURNEY

It was our first day in Leh, and we were advised not to sleep during the daytime as part of the acclimatization process. We tried to relax, and my ever-elusive sleep tried to descend on me promptly. Normally, I can’t sleep during the daytime even if I count 1000 black sheep. Here I was groggily fighting my sleep; luckily, by 4 pm our car driver arrived to take us on a short trip around Leh.

We were driven to the Shanti Stupa, 5 km away from our resort, it was at a height of 11,841 ft, on a steep hill. 

After parking the car, we slowly went up the incline. On the way, we saw two temples of Buddha.

One was the main temple; the Buddha statues were huge and glittering, with mesmerising art on the walls, and there were benches for people who can't sit on the floor; these were meant for people to sit and meditate.

We heard that the daily prayers are held there; one must visit at the time of prayers before 10:00 A.M. The Tibetan hymns the monks chant along with the ringing bells are musical in nature and refresh and cool the mind.

We tried to meditate and could do it for a while when we suddenly heard two women, probably cousins, avidly and viciously discussing their mother-in-law, who must have been choking on her food wherever she was. I tried to avoid my husband’s eyes and pondered why these ladies spoiled their minds after coming so far from home. To add to this bedlam, their kids started fighting loudly, and Lo! Our peace was gone, and we got up with a loud sigh. 

This is the main difference I notice while travelling; we Indians are quite loud on phones, set very loud ringtones and let our kids shout at their topmost pitch. Most of us don’t seem to understand that religious places need some sanctity and sobriety, alas!

We reached the Shanti Stupa by slowly going up the steep road; we saw people climbing the 500 steep steps to the hilltop and a few monks dressed in red robes nimbly skipping up the steps. However, we thought it was not our cup of tea, at least in Ladakh.

The Shanti Stupa is a Buddhist white-domed stupa whose construction began in April 1983 by Japanese Buddhist Bhikshu Gyomyo Nakamura and is part of the Peace Pagoda mission and holds the relics of the Buddha at its base, enshrined by the 14th Dalai Lama. 

The project was built with the help of Ladakhi Buddhists, who offered voluntary labour, and Japanese Buddhists, who consider India the "sacred" birthplace of the Buddha.

The 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, inaugurated the Shanti Stupa in August 1991.

Going to the stupa, we were spellbound by its special location, as its 360-degree view was stupendous and we had panoramic views of the surrounding landscape. We were instructed to go around it in a clockwise direction, as we usually do in all our temples.

Entire Leh city unfurled itself before our delighted eyes; we could see small hamlets, and wherever there were elevated hills, monasteries were constructed, though it was obvious some of them were in disrepair, and only some were being maintained well. The white hills were playing hide and seek with the fluffy clouds, which occasionally threatened to burst on all of them.

The stupa is built as a two-level structure. The first level featured the central relief of Dharmachakra with deer on each side. A central golden Buddha image sat on a platform depicting the "turning wheel of Dharma." 

The second level had reliefs depicting the "birth" of Buddha, the death of Buddha (Mahanirvana), and Buddha "defeating the devils" while meditating.

Both levels featured a series of smaller meditating Buddha reliefs. 

Nichidatsu Fujii's mission was to build peace pagodas and temples around the world and try to resurrect Buddhism back in India.

The Shanti Stupa was built to promote world peace and prosperity and also to commemorate 2500 years of Buddhism, and is considered a symbol of the ties between the people of Japan and Ladakh.

Sunrise and sunset are considered to provide the best views from Shanti Stupa. The stupa is best visited in the evening, as it is fully illuminated with lights at night. 

When we stood and gazed at the stupa, we felt that its tall tip was playing with the clouds.

We next went to the Leh Palace; our driver parked the car at a sharp incline, and we ascended up the rough path.

On the way, we saw that several repair and renovation works were being undertaken. 

 saw cute Ladakh women selling hand-woven woollen scarves and headbands.

At first glance, the Leh Palace had a desolate look, covered with fine white dust; the palace, however, had 7-9 floors which were connected by narrow and squeaky wooden stairs; the walls were huge, and the special attraction was wide-open balconies. It is said to be a great example of medieval Tibetan architecture and was the main establishment of the Namgyal kings.

We then went to the entrance, which was decorated with wooden carved figurines,, but these too were looking old and tired.

I could see that the palace was perched on a ridge, and I wondered how difficult it must have been for workers to carry up the construction material to such heights.

Tourists can approach the palace from the Leh market through the winding alleys of old Leh town, but it is quite a strenuous task for the oxygen-starved tourists.

We entered the palace, but we were not very impressed by the display; the light was insufficient and the steps creaky. There were no signboards or public address systems to guide the tourists

The building was built of brick and mud; there were decorated wooden beams and pillars and windows adorned with intricate wood carving. 

There were benches everywhere to sit; the 9th floor, however, was closed to the tourists. The only positive feature of the palace was the 360-degree views from the balconies, getting better as we went up the floors, offering amazing views of the Ladakh region and the Stok Kangri.

We wondered why the maintenance of the former royal palace was so poor; it was constructed in 1600 and abandoned when Dogra forces took control of Ladakh in the mid-19th century.  

To our disappointment, none of the original interior artefacts survived, but we found an interesting exhibition of the best heritage sites across India, and the Buddhist shrine.

Our next visit was to the Leh Market, an ancient market dating back to the 15th century, from the era of King Singe Namgyal. Supposedly, many old trees were felled in recent times, and the market was renovated.

As always, when we go to a market while travelling, my husband tells me strictly that we are not going to buy anything more; we would only be doing window shopping. I blithely nod very obediently, knowing that he would be the first to break the rule Ha,Ha!

The Leh Market is one of the main attractions of Leh City and needs to be seen preferably in the evening when the lights are on, which we were fortunate.  

It had wide pedestrian walking and sitting spaces as well. It was a very well-managed place, and we leisurely strolled down the lanes. I observed that everywhere in Ladakh there were many stray dogs, which looked quite obviously well fed, satiated, and relaxed. I remembered the quote, 'Every dog has its day ‘

On the pedestrian side, we found rows of vegetables being sold by the women, mostly potatoes, peas, onions, cabbage, carrots, and cauliflower.

Apricots, walnuts, berries, and almonds were also being sold along with the green apples.

We saw many restaurants, trinket shops, and a few ATMs and other shopping options. One can buy Pashmina shawls and woollen clothes. We also went to Tibetan refugee shops where we could get good fridge magnets and keychains. 

I found a quaint little stall run by a sprightly Leh lady. We bought some keychains and hand mirrors from her. When I wanted a snap with her, she consented and promptly pulled out her goggles and adjusted her hairdo; she also wanted a snap of both of us on her phone too.

Wherever we travelled in Ladakh, I observed that almost all the native people, including the labourers, were wearing sun shades.

Finally, we had a cup of hot coffee in a small café where I saw books kept for the tourists to read and relax and returned to our resort loaded with our shopping bags.

FIRST GLANCE OF LEH, LADAKH JOURNEY

 We took the Indigo flight to Leh from Delhi on a warm pleasant morning, after checking in and at the gate, I observed that most of the tourists waiting for the Leh flight were youngsters, some obviously on their honeymoon trip as evidenced by their lovey dovey body language!

We had a smooth flight, I was lost in thoughts about our trip and was blissfully observing the fluffy white clouds carpeting and floating by, suddenly our pilot announced that we were now flying over the Ladakh mountain ranges

 

Indeed I could see the mighty mountains looking like small hillocks, some were snow tipped and some had snowy rivulets trickling down and in some places I could see small groups of houses snugly nested in these mighty mountains 

The Ladakh range is composed of granite rocks of the batholith, bound by the Shyok suture zone to the north and the Indus suture zone to the south. 

The climate is semiarid, with maximum summer temperatures exceeding 30 °C along the lower slopes and mean monthly temperatures in winter well below 0 °C at elevations above 13,000 feet. 

The Deosai mountains, located southwest of the Indus River in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, are sometimes considered part of the range.

In no time we were approaching the Leh Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport named after 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, an Indian statesman and monk, whose Spituk Monastery is very close by to the airfield.

We could see the town and houses, roads and river clearly, our pilot announced that the airport was managed by the Indian Army so photography of the airport was strictly prohibited unless we wanted to face the hassle of our camera or cell phone being seized and spend our precious time giving feeble explanations

Due to the presence of mountain winds in the afternoon, all flights take off and land in the morning or mid afternoon

Our flight took a U turn, we had the sensation of falling down gently and landed. We got down from the flight and were taken in small rickety old buses to the airport where we waited for our check in luggage to arrive. I could sense the excitement on most of the faces and observed their cautious breaths

We were asked to show our vaccination status at the exit gate and some tourists who couldn’t produce them were asked to wait and get their RT PCR tests done, the airport had simple elegance and had Buddhist scriptures and statues all over

Maybe it was a psychological feeling but after getting down from the flight, I started feeling a little breathless and covertly attempted to see my oxygen saturation on my smart watch, my ever practical and clinical hubby stopped me and said  “ wait for a while ! don’t wish the mountain sickness on yourself, you can withstand the lowered oxygen pressure, just start walking slowly and not rush around as you usually do ” ,true to his words my distress decreased and I could breathe quite normally, I thought all my  literature search about the care to be taken in high altitude areas like Ladakh had definitely set my panic button buzzing

We came out of the airport with our luggage and only then I dared to cautiously take out my cell phone to take pics

We were greeted outside by the cab driver arranged by our resort, The Zen Ladakh

As we settled down in the car my first impression was that though oxygen could have been at low pressure, the air we breathed in was superbly pure, we were surrounded by the majestic hills, the milky clouds in clear blue sky were merrily peeping in and welcoming us with a cheerful hello 

As we were moving slowly through the town I noticed that houses in Leh were mostly made of wood, mud and stone. 

Wood for Ladakh houses is used from Willow or Poplar trees brought by truck from Srinagar nowadays and previously from the hills by mules 

Our driver told us that the ceiling of houses which was flat is made from wood as it keeps the house warm in winter. It is used for storing ample animal fodder to be used in winter

Depending on the family members, a house can be of two or three floors and walls are built of stone which are coated with mud and lime

I noticed that almost all houses had balconies called rapsal made of wooden latticework reminiscent of the Ottoman architecture, these are used as observation post for visitors by the family members.

Ground floors usually have no windows and are used for storing animals & house hold articles and wooden steps are built to go to other floors

There were also red decorations on the wall, triangles, lines of dots and sometimes swastikas, these are very reminiscent of our village dwellings 

The head of an ibex- a goat or any other animal favored by the owner, was used as a decoration above the door

Houses are frequently rebuilt and 30 - 40 years is an average lifespan for a house. 

As we travelled further I noticed that Leh appeared very dry and white 

Majority of the soils in Leh and Kargil district are sandy to sandy loam in texture and medium to medium-high in organic matter with poor water holding capacity. 

Leh as it is tucked in between the huge mountains gets very scanty rainfall, probably because of the extreme dryness, there was sparse vegetation in the area. There were scanty patches of grass and shrubs for animals to graze.

During the summers, trees of fruits such as apples, apricots, and walnuts bloom and we could indeed see the trees loaded with fruit

These trees can easily be grown because they suit the climatic conditions required for growing such trees, like everywhere else these are useful for oxygen and can control air pollution.

Ladakh is a small town and we reached our destination the Zen Ladakh resort which sat prettily on an elevation within a very short time

We were met warmly at the reception by the staff there, given a welcome drink and were presented with a thin white ceremonial scarf around our neck called a khata or khatag in Tibetan Buddhism

We were given a room in the old wing of the resort, there was a new wing but we liked our spacious room with big French windows, a dressing room and a huge bath room with Jacuzzi facility and in built music system and a French window in the bathroom too, we even had our own massage chair to our delight, which I was regularly using at the end of the tiring days.

To our surprise our rooms had fans and no A/C but the corridors outside had them throughout their stretch.

On opening the huge windows we got delightful and breath taking views of the Stok Kangri trans Himalayan mountain range, I could see that some of them had snow caps, all through our stay in Ladakh we could see that the all the mountains which had very scanty green cover were changing colors remarkably when the sun and the moon rays fell on them or the blue clouds passed by 

                                       

After a simple lunch which was indeed very tasty, though advised to take rest that day we decided to initially take a tour of our resort. It had luxurious facilities like an indoor centrally heated swimming pool with a steam bath, conference hall, gymnasium, health club, beauty parlor and a souvenir shop, there were also laundry/dry cleaning services, car on hire, doctor on call and a spacious car park area.

It is my experience that during our travels we get to stay sometimes in beautiful resorts and hotels with swimming pools and gym facilities but we never use them much because we are anxious to see the places and rush around , as a result by evening we are very tired, maybe it is the plight of most of us who are budget conscious and want to cover as many places as we can before it is too late to travel

From our room we could see the gardens, as we went closer we could smell the beautiful fragrance 

The flowers were lovely and colorful, I noticed suddenly small trees loaded with ripe and raw apples, some had even fallen on the ground, some of the staff of the resort were munching on them for dessert, though small they tasted delicious and were free for all in the resort.

Whenever we go to such serene places on a visit I keep telling my hubby locals are so blessed to live in such peace and beauty and how I wished I could live there for ever and promptly my hubby reminds me that “ I would thoroughly get bored after few days, how cruel of him to jolt me out of my dreams” I tell him

The reception desk people were very helpful and friendly, Mr Thinles took extra care of us and gave us personal attention. He guided us with our itinerary and advised on few shopping spots and the local food 

We then took the permits needed for our travels in Ladakh as we needed them for the next day tour