The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
We stayed
at the Mizka Homestay in Leh, a small, simple place, an old house extended
to accommodate guests. It is located on one of the inner roads off the market,
so was peaceful and quiet. There were 4 rooms on the first floor, for guests.
One of these is actually a kitchen which doubles up as a guest room when there
are extra visitors. All the rooms were occupied, since this was the peak
tourist season, but we met only one other guest, a Brazilian from Copenhagen on
a long tour of South-East Asia.
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| Our room at the Mizka Homestay |
What I
loved was the seating arrangement in the common/ dining area, which had these
low seats, reminding me of the low palagas we sit on, in south India.
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| The dining room at the homestay |
It was also
interesting to learn that rice was the staple for most people in the
region. I have no notes of the food we
ate, in my diary… not surprising, since I barely notice what I eat, and am not
very happy to experiment. But I do remember that we asked our hostess to cook
anything vegetarian she usually cooked. She made us a variety of dishes, all of
which we relished!
On our
first morning in Leh, Shankar and I went off exploring, to the market. At the
time, we were hugely into collecting and sending postcards, so most of my diary
entries are about buying postcards and sending them off at the post office.
Heading to a café run by our host, we finally found some Wi-Fi. Access to
WhatsApp messages brought along the information that a friend of Shankar’s in
the army was posted in Leh, and off we went to meet him! That led to lunch at the
Officers’ Mess, and long conversations too personal to write about. He also
took us to the Hall of Fame, a museum dedicated to the Indian Army’s history
and achievements in the region, including a short history of Ladakh.
Conversations
with long lost friends tend to make one lose track of time, but we finally said
our goodbyes and headed back to our homestay, only to lose our way among the
by-lanes! We wandered around for almost an hour before finding our way back!
Our
sightseeing of Leh began with a visit to the Leh Palace. The Leh Palace towers
over the city, and is a massive, nine-storeyed structure built in stone, around
1600 CE by King Senge Namgyal, of the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh. The royal
family lived here till the 19th century, when they fled after the
Dogra invasion. The outside of the palace is still impressive, while little
remains of the decorations on the inside.
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| View of Leh city from the Palace |
Also
nearby, at the base of the Palace are the older fortifications, and the Namgyal
Stupa, as well as other monasteries. Our plan was to visit all of them, but the
day had already been a long one, and we were tired, with no energy to walk any
more. We therefore gave them a miss and headed instead to the Shanti Stupa.
The Shanti Stupa is a picturesque stupa built atop a hillock by a Japanese Buddhist monk in 1991, with the relics of the Buddha at its base, enshrined by the 14th Dalai Lama. However, the main attraction of the stupa is the panoramic view it offers of the city of Leh.
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| View from the Shanti Stupa |
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| Namgyal Tsemo (top left) and Leh Palace (bottom right) as seen from the Shanti Stupa |
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| Leh Palace (back view), seen from Shanti Stupa |
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| Namgyal Tsemo, as seen from Shanti Stupa |
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| Panoramic view of Shanti Stupa |
If I planned a trip to Leh today, I would keep so much more time for the palace, the fort and the monasteries; I would also keep aside time to simply explore the city, walking along the lanes, looking at the houses. However, at the time I planned the trip, I was more worried about how I would react to the altitude, and thus kept activities to a minimum.
Our second
day at Leh was dedicated to palaces and monasteries – Stok, Hemis, Thiksey and
Shey. The four of them are special enough to warrant a post to themselves, so
let me move on.
By the time
we left Shey palace, I couldn’t wait to get back to our room, have a hot bath,
and fall into bed. But the day wasn’t over yet. Shankar’s friend arrived, with
friends in tow, and all of us headed to the Sound and Light show at the Zorawar
fort.
Zorawar
Singh was the wazir of the Raja of Jammu, who captured Ladakh and made it
possible for the region to be eventually brought under the Indian Union. At the
Leh palace, we had heard from our guide, the stories of his sack of Leh, of
exiling the king to Stok, and his campaign to Tibet which eventually led to his
death. Ladakhis look on Zorawar Singh as the cruel warrior who de-throned the
rightful king, with help from the Muslims of Kargil, who deserved his death at
the hands of the Tibetans, far from home.
At the fort,
we heard the other side of the story – of the brilliant tactician and
commander, who led his forces through the harsh land, to victory, over and over
again. We heard of his quelling the rebellion in Ladakh thrice, of building the
fort as a symbol of his victory. The show specifically mentions Zorawar Singh
building the fort in the style of central and north India, completely unlike
traditional Ladakhi architecture. It reminded me of one of the talks on
monumentality at Jnanapravaha Mumbai, and I realized that this was, in a way, a
means to attain monumentality – by choosing to build in an alien style, to act
as a constant reminder of his victory his presence, to the locals, as a
deterrent to further rebellions.
Once again,
this highlighted the importance of hearing a story from both sides.
And thus
ended our sightseeing of Leh. More of its Buddhist monasteries in the next
post.
Earlier posts in series -
Coming up -
- Ladakh Diaries Part 4: Monasteries and Palaces in Leh - Stok, Hemis, Thiksey and Shey
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