Following breakfast visit of Spituk , Phyang and Sankark Spituk: 14 kms from Leh, the 15th century monastery, which tumbles down the sides of a steep knoll to a tight cluster of farmhouses and well-watered fields, is altogether more picturesque. Approached by road from the north, or from the south along a footpath that winds through Spitok village, its spacious rooftops command superb views. There is the grave of a very high reincarnation at the Gompa and the Spitok head Lama is also the head Lama of the Sankar Gompa in Leh. He also represents Ladakh as a member of the Indian Parliament. Gurphug in Stok and Pashi Gephel in Sabu are also under monasteries of Spitok. The Gompa has three chapels of which the highest, the Paldan Lumo temple (Kali Mater), is the most impressive. The temple Gonkhang is approximately a thousand years old. From Paldan Lumo temple, on the peak of the mountain, a small path leads past a red Latho to the monastery proper. The built in Dukhang is well worth seeing. The shrine to Vajra Bhairava, a Tantric guardian deity of the Gelug-pa order, is distinctly spooky. Phyang : Built by kind Lkra-Shis_namgyal, founder of Namgyal Dynasty, in 1500 after defeating the last of the Lah-Chen King and is the home of the Sri Khing Pa sect (Red Capped). On approaching the monastery entrance, on the grounds, is a long flagstaff on an elaborate pedestal put up by the king after he had won the throne. Several temples have scenes from the eight members of happiness painted on the walls. Suddenly the recd waters of the Indus disappears in the sand, ahead lies vast stretch of desert, the horizon while the mountains appear to form two straight parallel lines running alongside the road. Sankar Gompa: 3-km north of the town centre, is among the most accessible monasteries in central Ladakh – hence its restricted visiting hours for tourists. The monastery, a small under Gompa of Spitok, is staffed by twenty monks, and is the official residence of the Kushok Bakul, Ladakh’s head of the Gelug-pa sect. Appropriately for such a high-ranking ‘Rinpoche’, his glass-fronted penthouse enjoys pride of place on top of the main building, crowned with a 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. Beyond the lords of the four quarters and wheel of life Mandala that adorn the verandah, one enters a high ceilinged hall whose walls writhe with lustrous multicoloured murals. Those on either side of the doorway are the 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. Overnight at hotel
