|
Diskit Gompa, Jammu &
Kashmir
Accomodation
-
Olthang Guest House.
- Sand
Dune Guest house.
How
to reach there
Road: Buses return to
Leh from Diskit. There's a bus to Sumur and Panamic.
The
gompa's steps climb past the monk's quarters to the first of a group
of temples. Local legend has it that a Mongol demon, a sworn enemy
of Buddhism, was slain nearby, but his lifeless body kept returning
to the gompa. What are reputed to be his wrinkled head and hand, grey
and ageless, are now clasped by a pot-bellied protector deity in the
spooky Gon-khang, a dark and claustrophobic temple, packed with fierce
gods and goddesses.
The tiny Lachung temple,
higher up, is the oldest here. Soot-soiled murals face a huge Tsong-kha-pa
statue, topped with a Gelug-pa yellow hat. In the heart of the gompa,
the Du-khang's remarkable mural, filling a raised cupola above the
hall depicts Tibet's Tashihunpo Gompa, where the Panchen Lama is receiving
a long stram of visitors approaching on camels, horses and carts.
Finally, the Kangyu Lang and Tsangyu Lang temples act as storerooms
for hundreds of Mongolian and Tibetan texts, pressed between wooden
slats and wrapped in red and yellow silk. |
