Samtanling Gompa is above the village of Sumur. The Nubra Valley itself is off the beaten track. Sumur is about 120 km northeast of Leh; and you have to cross Khardong-la (pass altitude 5.359 m). You won't find much on Samtanling Gompa on the internet. My travel guide book has more than other sources together. Samtanling is also spelt: Samsthanling, Samstanling, Sam-stem Ling, and may more.
Samtanling is an offspring of Rizong Gompa, where monks have to adhere to very strict rules: only two meals a day, no snack after midday, no music etc. Especially eating only twice a day is a hardship during winter, when temperature drops below -10° C. Samtanling Gompa has been established by Lama Tsultrim Nyima about 160 years ago; Rizong Gompa has been established 20 years earlier [2], in 1841. The Dalai Lama visited Samtanling Gompa in 1961 and inaugurated it [3]. The monastery maintains a school, which was built in the 1990s. At present there are around 30 young monk students. After graduating they typically go on to follow higher religious studies at the Drepung monastery in exile, in Karnataka, South India, before returning to Samtanling.
Spirtual leader of Samtanling Gompa is the abbot of Rizong Gompa, Shas Rinpoche. He had been on a visit right, when I went there. These visits cannot be frequent as it means a long journey beween the two monasteries. For the auspicious event, pilgrims were also visiting the gompa.
Sumur is a larger village, but less touristic than Hundar. So with Samtanling Gompa it's worth considering staying there.
The decoration looks like Thanksgiving
Ready to visit the gompa
Imminent snow fall
[1]
Mattausch, Jutta: Ladakh und Zanskar (Reiseführer) (Deutsch). 2017.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment