Lamayuru Panoramas

The second stage of our trip was Ladakh and the first stop the small village with a famous monastery, the oldest Gompa in all of Ladakh – Lamayuru. Unfortunately, our stay there was only brief. Since the buses from Srinagar to Leh were on strike (well, the bus drivers were on strike – not the buses) we had to take a jeep across the state and that did not allow for overnight stops in the villages along the way.




The Gompa is set amidst some incredible scenery. The moonlike landscape is a bottom of an ancient glacial lake. The legend is that a Buddhist saint prayed to the guardian spirits and the lake was miraculously drained away. To me it seems ridiculous that somebody would pray to turn a beautiful lakeshore into desert that Ladakh is in today – it seems more like an act of an Environmental Terrorist than a saint – but the landscape is nonetheless breathtaking and the monastery is perched on top the hill overlooking the valley and the village.

Being a popular spot with tourists and photographers (Lumen Dei workshop was there only few days after us) the locals became adamant about requesting ‘baksheesh’ for posing for our cameras.