Freezing Kibber Village – Snow White Spiti

Last night at Kaza was extremely cold, a bit difficult to sleep at first but after a while due to, may be fatigue, I slept like a horse. We had plans for Key Monastery & Kibber Village for the next day but all was dependent upon how the weather will play and if snowfall will allow us or not. (PS: Sorry for this delay in the post as I was on DoW Mega Meet for 10 days and hence, could not write & publish it. Now, will try to post this series ever 3rd day to wrap it up quickly :))

For the first time I experienced such a cold temperature but once the quilts settled the warmth, it was fine. Next morning I woke up with clear deep blue skies with whiteness all around on earth… What an amazing sight it was, unbelievably beautiful !! 🙂 🙂 … This day we did not had much to do except visiting Key Monastery, Kibber Village and traveling around Kaza. We wanted to give our ride a rest so we hired a local taxi from Kaza. Our breakfast came from Tsering bhai house and we were feeling blessed to have someone like him supporting us in these harsh conditions which we were not used to, cannot thank enough to him, his lovely family and motu bhai for it…

Taxi came right on time. It was a Sumo Gold run by Chhewang Dorjey: 094592-28584, an amazing driver I will say… We started in the whiteness of snow all around us in Kaza and we first decided to visit Kibber Village and then Key Monastery.

About Kibber Village

Kibber is about 22 KMs from Kaza and is situated at an altitude of 4205 Meters. Kibber claims itself as the highest village in the world. However, there is another village about 7 KMs east of Kibber by the name Gette at an altitude of 4270 Mtrs, then Tashigang almost touching 4500 Mtrs and then there is Komic which is further higher in the range of 4500 Mtrs. So, I am not sure how true these claims are as I assume there might be more villages as well (may be in Tibet) which might prove these claims false enough but not known to us. Anyways, may be the second fact associated with Kibber being second highest village in Asia (Komic being highest) connected by bus service could be true. Anyways, you will surely enjoy the drive from Key monastery to Kibber where the road is not that paved but the views are nice once you reach Kibber. Spend some time in this timeless village as well to feel the culture around. The vistas surrounding the Kibber and Gette villages are all mountains of limestone rocks which adds more colours to this beautiful valley. You can see Chicham Village in the distance too where the road goes up to the point of gorge over which manual trolley is installed used by locals to transit from Chicham to the motorable road.

Coming back to the story, we reach Kibber Village soon as the road was fine though surrounding with snow all around. The cold wind blowing outside was cutting the senses on my face, nose was getting numb despite the sun being out. There was no space to take the car inside the village so had to walk till the end of the village in search of primary school and believe me that short walk in such cold and that altitude was taking toll on me :D… Here at Kibber Village, we had planned to execute the DoW Causes – GYAAN 500 for which I have already written a detailed account of our experience at the link: DoW Cause | GYAAN 500 in action at Kibber, Spiti Valley

As always it was a special feeling to mingle with kids of schools, see their smiles, hopes in the eyes, innocence at best… Gives real pleasure to mind as well as soul !! Dorje bhai and a local from Kibber Village was quite instrumental in finding the home in Kibber Village where school was running because in winters people offer their homes for aanganwaadis/primary schools to run with bukhari for warmth installed in the houses. A remarkable offering to the the society by such people… After having fun up there and saying bye to all the little kids, we descended to second destination of our day, Key Monastery.

I hope you liked this part of the Snow White Spiti Valley Travel Tale.

The Journey ahead…

Have you ever been to Kibber Village? Or are you planning a drive to Spiti Valley over it sometime soon and have any queries? Do share, in either comments section below or in Itinerary Advice Forum of DwD Community with all other devils 🙂 🙂