Landscape > Articles > Dewdrops over the Mountains

Frothy streams spilling over pans of clawed and mauled rock gave way in moments to walls had been rubbed smooth by the rushing waters of the river Satluj. The Satluj slipped off on its way to the Arabian Sea and its side-stream, the Spiti took over. And over the narrow top of the Spiti’s gorge, the sky was just too distant to seem real. The only thing left to look at were the patterns on the rock-face which, in a single swipe, revealed the millennia of their formation. Then came the curves on the road, one loop and then another climbing tortuously up the hillside. When the miles of straight highway came, they didn’t seem to belong to the ruggedness that was Spiti.

Night had come by the time we reached Tabo. In the chill of the early morning, at first glance the monastery seemed nothing more than a series of large mud huts but that impression was tossed aside as we entered the du khang, the assembly chamber. It took a moment for the pupils to dilate and in the gentle light of dozens of butter lamps we saw what we had come to. Before us was Vairocana, so much larger than life and turning the wheel of law as he had for centuries past. Tabo is the largest monastic complex in Spiti and has nine temples, twenty-three chortens – some of which are regarded to encase the remains of venerated lamas – a monks' chamber and a nuns' chamber and this apart from the caves on the hillside and the new wings. Held next to Tibet’s Tholing gompa in sanctity, the Tabo 'Chos - hKhor' or Doctrinal Enclave, was founded in 996 A.D. by the great teacher Rinchensang-po and is renowned for its breathtaking murals and stucco statues.

Driving from Tabo towards Kaza, Dhankar lies on a side road, clamped over a series of rocky outcrops. In local parlance, a 'dhankar' is a fort - and that is what this monastery once was. Perched high over the valley, this is a superb example of Spiti's traditional architectural skills and was once the castle of the ruler of Spiti, the Nono. Past the little town of Kaza, high above the left bank of the river Spiti, is the Ki monastery. Ki’s collection of rooms and labyrinth of corridors do not follow any defined plan, but seem to have grown over the years. Ki is the repository of rare thangka paintings and manuscripts of the sacred Tangyur texts. Apart from the cells occupied by the monks, the gompa has a large assembly chamber lined by religious paintings and other chambers for worship and gathering. The chamber of the incarnate abbot, the zim-chung is the highest point in the building.

From Kipling’s ‘world within a world’, we were over the ragged rock of the Kunzam pass and in the vast arid spaces of Lahaul that seemed to have been pulled out of a painting by Dali. With the little town of Keylong as a base, there are several of Lahaul’s eighteen ancient monasteries that can be visited – the Guru Ghantal is regarded as the oldest while the Kardang, Tayul and Gemur are also close by. Keylong lies along one the highest highways in the world that connects Manali to Leh and crosses four high passes – the Rohtang La ( 3,980m), the Baralacha La ( 4,982m), the Lachlang La ( 5,066m) and the Tanglang La ( 5,360m).

The Rohtang La is the pass that connects Lahaul with Manali. Speaking worlds for the dread it once held, the name translates as ‘the pass littered with dead bodies’. And there also hangs a tale. It is believed that when the Pandavas were in exile, an episode from the epic, the Mahabharata, that mountain of a man, Bhima kicked the hills aside to make way for their passage – and a variation says that Lahaul’s deity, Gyephang smote the peaks with his whip to create the pass and the high winds encountered especially in the late mornings, are ascribed to the force of the lash.

While Manali has a couple of recently built monasteries, it is Rewalsar with its little lake that lies off the highway that connects Manali with Mandi, that may well be called the cradle of trans Himalayan Buddhism. It was from here that the great teacher and tantric, Padmasambhava is regarded to have ‘taken flight’ to Tibet and set the foundations for Vajrayana Buddhism, the Thunderbolt Vehicle. And the tiny clusters of floating reed on the waters of Rewalsar’s lake, are said to embody his spirit. Even a decade back, Rewalsar was a sleepy little village and today, its tiny confines are booming with pilgrims, tourists and a spate of construction activity – including the creation of a huge statue of the Buddha – a tribute to the destroyed ones of Bamiyan.

After centuries of seclusion a change came when His Holiness the Dalai Lama made McLeodganj, near Dharamsala, his home in exile. The Namgyal monastery has larger than life images of the Buddha, Avalokteshwara and Padmasambhava. The walls of the large assembly chamber are adorned with the 'thanka' paintings that are unique to the culture and depict saints and deities and are executed to rigid codes of iconography. The daily chant of prayers has a mesmerising effect - even if the comprehension remains only partial. And there may well be times that you will see some of the most famous faces in world sitting in the hall and one the of chanters may well be Richard Gere.

“As the dew-drop slips into the shining sea”, the teachings of the Buddha, ‘The Enlightened One’, sought for the individual to merge with the Universal Life. He could thus attain 'nirvana' and end the cycle of birth and rebirth. The path chosen by the Buddha was not easy but it paved a road for others and it is perhaps these monasteries that have become markers along the way.

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