Ladakh Journey | Colors of Diskit Monastery, Nubra Valley

The Journey so far-

Day 6 | 5th, August 2010 | Diskit, Nubra Valley

It was turn to say good bye to Hunder sand dunes and move towards the famous 14th century Diskit Monastery. Right on the top behind Diskit monastery, stands a 106 foot tall Lord Buddha statue, which took almost 6 years to complete and cost close to 30 million rupees in its construction. This huge marvel of Lord Buddha is the tallest in the Ladakh region, having significant population of Buddhist followers. We were extremely excited to see such an art and we were more than lucky as it was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama just two weeks before on 24th or 25th July 2010 :)…

The Lord Buddha… 106 Feet Tall Statue at Diskit Monastery…

Again, the drive back to Diskit from Hunder didn’t took much time and soon we were right at the entrance of Diskit Monastery. The monk sitting at the entrance charged us Rs 20 each as an entry fees to the monastery. We parked the car on the gate and saw that owner of Hotel Sten Del has also come with his family to offer prayers at the monastery. We shared “Juley” and smiles as they went into the monastery. My cousin and friends moved into the monastery soon after shooting one or two pictures but I stayed on to use a tripod for the very first time in life. The lesson learnt just before the trip was for shooting a panorama and it was time to pass the test now. I setup the entire apparatus, opened my notes (so that I don’t miss anything) 😉 and shot several meaningless overlapped pictures of the Diskit beauty on offer. I repeated the task for another set this time starting from the other end of the panorama. I passed in the test or not, time will tell when we will reach home.

My first use of Tripod… My First Panorama… :)…Did I pass the test above???

It was done for me and I took the tripod to fold it, as my cousin and friends who were watching me offering silly jokes during the exercise asked to shoot the group including Tsewang using the tripod. I obliged to them and after few clicks packed the tripod and placed it in the car.

My second use of Tripod… The gang again…

I kept experimenting with the clicks as others went inside the monastery. I dropped the idea of taking tripod with me because first place we were getting late and secondly the stairs to reach the Lord Buddha statue were to many to carry myself alone :lol:… At such altitude, with such less stamina and climbing so many stairs, even the camera bag would cause trouble I knew ;)… After my experiments when I went at the entrance to the monastery temple I found the prayers were being offered and all were concentrating. I thought to myself it wouldn’t be good to disturb these guys and I better keep exploring outside. After the prayer they all shared some drink in a cup of tea. It looked like tea to me with flavor of butter, I don’t know.

Diskit Monastery… As you enter…

Diskit Monastery… Entrance to Prayer Room…

Diskit Monastery… The Backdoor…

Diskit Monastery… Another Entrance Gate but Smaller… Probably for monks only…

Diskit Monastery… Prayers on Offer…

It was time to reach witness the statue from the closing distance and we started to climb the stairs. Uff, it took two stops to reach the top, such bad has gone out the stamina 🙂 but of course the offering at the end was worth the calories exhausted. The views around Diskit from the top were breathtaking and I regretted the fact that I couldn’t bring tripod to the top :(. I cheered myself with the thought of Pangong Tso, Tripod and Panoramas :lol:…As I said there were very little things that happened as we were too busy contemplating the beauty of Nubra Valley in silence. But, for sure you will not feel disappointed watching this photo stream.

Center of Attraction…A Shade…

Lord Buddha… Final Steps to reach…

Lord Buddha… Sitting High and Handsome…

Lord Buddha… Another View…

Lord Buddha… Please shower some praise on me :)…

View from the Top… Beautiful Colors of Diskit…

View from the Top… Three Pillars of Peace…

View from the Top… The Other Side of Diskit…

View from the Top… The Houses of Monks (Perhaps :confused:)…

Back Again… Me and My Friends…

Back Again… Me, My Friends and My Cousin…

Draped in Red… Image of Calmness…

Shyok River… Leading the Way…

We clicked close to 50 pictures at the top and started the return back towards Leh as it was close to 1 PM.  The drive back to Leh via Khardung La would surely be enthralling and I was surely this time due to presence of light we would get colorful pictures at the Khardung La top. So, wait for the next part to unfold and meanwhile enjoy the video below which we shot on the way back. The video was shot while the drive along the Shyok River as we exit from the Diskit town and move towards Khalsar.

It was just an amazing feeling while driving along the Shyok River in Nubra Valley. One one side so close to the river you are zipping through the roads and on the right side thick sheets of mud are almost waiting to slide and push you down in to the river… WOW! It was heart pumping stuff!!!

Do keep an eye on the coming part which in some splendid pictures of roads and colors of Khardung La prayer flags.