August 05, 2009 - Visit to Thiksey and Shey
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Today, August 5th,
already a week that we are in Ladakh
we still have the life of princes, with a great guesthouse very quiet which allows to have
a few lie-ins. Oh yes I say that because in our previous guesthouse, we could hear the muezzin of the city mosque very well (especially for the call to prayer in the middle of the night!!)
yes there is a small minority of Muslims in Ladakh too (Kashmir is not far)
Today on the program, after of course our traditional lie-in, the monastery of Thiksey which is perched on a mountain and the city of Shey which is an ancient capital of Ladakh
To go there, we again made an appointment with our taxi driver, very happy to meet us for a new ride!
it#039;s not very far, about 15 kilometers from Leh, but about 30 minutes to get there
seen from afar, all the buildings look a bit like the Potala in Lhasa
From the top of the monastery, there is a fabulous view of the entire Indus Valley
and of course
it contains one of the most famous statues of the Buddha of the future (Maitreya):
A little anecdote: while we visited the gompa, we attended the filming of an Indian Bollywood film (with Indian dances typical of Indian musicals)
I had fun filming this to show you when school starts again....
then, after about an hour of visiting
we went to visit the Shey Palace, the ancient capital of Ladakh
it#039;s still a ruined palace, in restoration course, which also houses a small temple with a magnificent statue
that#039;s it for the day....