Lamayuru
Lamayuru has a mystique that no other Ladaki monastery can equal. Spectacular setting of moon landscape; rugged cliffs and scree slopes that surround its towering mud-brick pile, a lost Shangrila amidst the stark mountains. This may be due to its location that is remote and isolated but not secluded, a stopover point in Ancient times for travelers on the
If you plan to visit the monastery you have an option of taking the Kargil bus that leaves Leh early in the morning; the journey takes the better part of the day.
Lamayuru and village and its fields lie below the monastery, sprawling across the slopes and floor of the corrie that encloses the area and through which Drogpo, a stream, flows. The terrain all around is amazing: the cliff on which the monastery stands, a promontory-like spur, is heavily eroded, ites sheer sides jagged and bare. The ancient chortens and mud-brick houses, village homes and, higher up, monks’ quarters, blend seamlessly with it all, almost as though they aren’t manmade but part of the nature landscape.
There is mythical story that the Lamayuru corrie was once a great lake and this may well be true; the ‘Moonland’ depression close by, geologists believe, was certainly one. The great sage Arhat Nyimagong, the story goes, used his spiritual powers to open a crack at the side of the basin and drain the lake. Prophesying that a monastery would come up above the depression, he planted corn on its edges that ripened in the shape of swastikas. That, it is said, is why the Lamayuru monastery is properly called Yang-drung Gompa, yang-drug being the Tibetan word for swastika.
Some historians however see in the name indications that Lamayuru was once a religions centre of the ancient Bon faith of
There is lot more to discovery at Lamayuru… Join us on our Ladakh Adventure. We are leaving Mumbai on May 29, 2009 evening by Rajdhani train.
Juley to the
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