One of Ladakh's most popular monasteries is located in the village of Hemis, which lies about 49kms southeast of Leh and less than 35kms from Shey; we worked with a taxi for the trip. In the morning we took a look at of the beautiful Whispering Willows and set off for Hemis in a Maruti Omni, with 2 young Ladakhi lads who were running the cab service throughout their college's summer season break.
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The route to Hemis is absolutely beautiful with the Indus River to the right and green fields irrigated by it, all around. We couldn't see the village right until we got about a kilometer from it then just as we turned a corner, it suddenly came into view with the monastery hanging miraculously over it clinging to a rocky cliff-face-- it was an awesome sight!
We feared having to climb up to the abbey but the cars and truck did all the climbing (which wasn't much really) and we were able to park in a car park right at the base of the abbey complex. We right away discovered that there were busloads of visitors here from Leh giving the location a touristy feel, unlike the other secluded monasteries of the region. And again since of this patronage, the Hemis monastery appeared a lot more unspoiled and under excellent care.
Considered to be the biggest monastic institution in all of Ladakh, Hemis monastery's yard is also among the largest. The yearly festival held here is quite popular particularly because the monastery can accommodate numerous monks on its facilities. The primary shrines of the abbey are housed in the 3-storied structure, which stands atop a high platform, to the right of the courtyard. The other sides are confined by a pillared gallery, which has actually been painted in the conventional Ladakhi colors of red, yellow and black.
Unfortunately, for us the primary assembly hall within the abbey was under maintenance and therefore not open to the general public for viewing. But we had the ability to check out the other shrines, of which the one on the very first flooring was the loveliest with terrific murals covering every inch of the wall. The highlight of the shrine, however, was the intricately carved, gold-toned thrones, which are used by the head monks. They were colorfully painted and beautifully protected. While we, including numerous other visitors, explored the shrine excitedly an only monk sat and chanted quietly, oblivious to the chaos around him.
On the upper floors we went to two other shrines of which one, the Guru Lakhang, had a fantastic picture of Guru Padmasambhava in all his magnificence. It was a high image looking rather crowded in a narrow, rectangle-shaped area. The other shrine was devoted to Lord Avalokiteshwara and had a long cabinet securing some ancient scriptures and images of Buddha, Maitreya and Tara. And after that lastly we climbed up to the balcony atop the monastery from where the views out to the village of Hemis and the surrounding mountains was amazing-- it was absolutely worth the climb!
Back in the courtyard, we cut across to the left-hand corner where lockers were attended to visitors to transfer their belongings prior to heading down to the museum where no electronic cameras, phones or bags were enabled. Liberated from our travel luggage, Madhu and I toured the museum leisurely and merely liked it. Compared with the other abbeys, the collection here was of far remarkable quality and much larger too. The metal sculptures dating hundreds of years back and the beautiful Thangka paintings were our outright favorites.
In general, the check out to Hemis was quite great and, though not as amazing as Thiksey, was definitely worth our time. Later on in the afternoon the kids dropped us back to Leh where we walked around making plans for seeing the rest of Leh area.
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