August 11, 2009 - matho monastery
After a first night in our little Ladakhi family
we have breakfast prepared by the little grandfatherrsquo;s daughter:
Tibetan bread, butter (rancid but that#039;s how it#039;s eaten here!!), jam and tea.
2 large loaves per person: I#039;m completely stuffed with a half...
the rest of the bread we give to the cows we meet on the road!!!
The afternoon program is at Matho monastery which is nearly 40 km from Leh
It dates from the 16th century
When we get there, we see that it is under construction!
but we follow a monk who takes us to see a certain number of pieces!
here everything looks very old, the rooms are very dark and it gives a quite heavy impression
impressive too!
there is even a very strange room, which is located at the very top of the monastery.
we see practically nothing there, all photos are prohibited, women are not allowed...
it looks like an old attic, there is wheat on the floor, terrifying wooden masks attached to the wall.
it#039;s a prayer room
on leaving, we thought the visit was over, another monk beckoned us
and invites us to enter a room under construction
it is a completely new room with dazzling colors which contrasts with the rooms that we have just
to visit...
In summary it was a super interesting gompa (monastery), perhaps one of the most authentic
that we have a visit.
lt;img src="https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3563/3356454241_890f8ceb2e.jpg?v=0" alt="" /gt;