A Morning at Thiksay Gompa

Before going into detail about that specific morning at Thiksay Gompa (Monastery), let's talk about transliteration, which is always tricky from Tibetan or Ladakhi. Thiksay may also be transliterated as Tikse, Tiksey or Thiksey. I prefer Thiksay. 

Thiksay Gompa belongs to the Buddhist Gelugpa sect (yellow hats) [1]. The monastery is twelve storeys high, has ten temples, an assembly hall, and living quarters for 120 monks, and also a nunnery. It is only 19 km from Leh to Thiksay, and the gompa lies at an altitude of 3,600 metres. As the monastery resembles the Potala in Lhasa it is also called the Mini Potala of India. The Chinese have invested in a larger monastery in Shangri-la, but that's politics. 

Thiksay Gompa houses many stupas, statues, thangkas, wall paintings, books and other items. In The Maitreya Temple contains a 15 metres high statue of Maitreya, the largest of such statues in Ladakh [2]. 

Thiksay Monastery was established by Palden Zangpo in the midst 15th century. He had been a disciple of the first Thiksay Rinpoche, Doe Chamsem Sherab Zangpo, who received teachings and initiations at Ganden Monaster (at about 4,000 meters altitude) [3]. I've visited Ganden Monastery twice: in 1998 and in 2009. More about Ganden Monastery here on the blog [4]. The old history is full of legends and interesting to read [3]. 

In recent history the present 9th Thiksay Rinpoche returned from Tibet in 1959. Thiksay Gompa had been in disrepair. The Rinpoche started and succeded to repair the monastery. Restoration had been done in later years by the Archaeological Survey of India, not without controversy. The traditional mud and stone courtyards had been changed to granite for instance. But all in all a balance to the restoration and renovation works has been found to retain the old order in consonance with the new works [5]. 

Early in the morning we ventured to the monastery. It has been a cold morning and after sunrise two monks started blowing into their horns. After that the morning puja was held in the main assembly hall. It has been very interesting to watch the ceremony from behind. Some tourists might think this is a folkloristic event, but it is a living religion. Jutta Mattausch pleaded to abolish photographing inside the halls. I can understand this, but at the same time I'm happy that I still could unobtrusively make a few photographs. 

Links and References:

[1] https://www.jktdc.co.in/Thiksey.aspx

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thikse_Monastery

[3] http://www.thiksay.org/history_7.html

[4] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2018/08/ganden-monastery.html

[5] Broken Hemisphere:Touch of Synthetic. Outlook Publishing 03. Nov. 2008. pp. 28-30. https://books.google.pn/books?id=NDEEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=de

[6] Mattausch, Jutta: Ladakh und Zanskar (Reiseführer) (Deutsch). 2017.

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