Sankar Gompa, Jammu & kashmir

Accomodation

• Yak Tail.

• Tsomo-Ri.

• Snow View

• Dragon

• Choskor

• Lha-Ri-Mo.

Location
In central Ladakh.

    The monastery, a small under-gompa of Spitok, is staffed by twenty monks, and is the offical residence of the Kushok Bakul, Laddakh's head of the Gelug-pa ("yellow hat") sect. Appropriate for such a high-ranking rinpoche, his glass-fronted penthouse enjoys pride of place on top of the main building, crowned with golden spire and a dharma chakra flanked by two deer (symbolizing the Buddha's first sermon in Sarnath). A flight of steps leads from the courtyard to the Du-khang (main prayer hall).

    Beyond the Lords of the Four Quarters and Wheel of Life mandala that adorn the verandah, you entre a high-ceilinged hall whose walls write with lustrous multicoloured murals. Those on either side of the doorway are most amazing: many armed pot-bellied bovine monsters drink blood from skull cups, while the copulating yab-yum couples to the right are garlanded with severed heads and engulfed in swirling red and yellow flames.

    Above the Du-khang stands the gompa's principal; deity, Tara, in her triumphant, 1000-armed form as Dukkar, or "Lady of the White Parasol", presiding over a light ,airy shrine room whose walls are adorned with a Tibetan calendar and tableaux depicting "dos and don'ts" for monks. Another flights of steps leads to the gompa library and, eventually, a roof terrace with fine views towards the north side of Namgyal Tsemo hill and the valley to the south.