Previous Entry | Next Entry

2003-07-09/ 07-10 - Leh - Hemis - Leh (Day 85-86)

I have been hanging out in Leh waiting for the most famous of monetary festivals, the festival at Hemis to start. It is a two-day affair and while I have no idea what to expect, know its something I will have to see. The way up was what I expected - bus after bus filled with locals and tourists (tourists dominating those sitting on the roof) going to the festival. On the bike I am covered in road dust kicked up from the busses and have diesel soot caked on my face and in my lungs long before I make it the 40 km to Hemis.

The monastery is tucked way back in the hills so much so that even just a couple of kilometers away from the monastery, its impossible to pick out anything of the buildings as they are hidden back in the valley's rough rocks. The only way to know this is the right way is the kilometer long mani-walls and large white stupas, which mark the road - and the line of busses and jeeps herding the tourists of course.

Two kilometers from the monastery, the police have blocked the road turning the hundred+ busses into a dirt field, which is now the parking lot. I still have not fully accustomed to the altitude and this walk with the camera gear up through the fields I find quite tiring. Even though I was reasonably early, arriving at Hemis about 8:30am, all three levels of the courtyard were packed to standing only room with thousands of locals and tourists. I spend the first half hour finding a place to squeeze myself into and know I am stuck there for the rest of the day.

The dances are a drawback to the older animalistic religions, which predate Buddhism in the area with horrible demons on the masks of the dancers. The monks perform ritual dances which unfortunately I'd found little information on so it was hard to understand much of the significance but the costumes themselves and the audience leave enough to view to keep things interesting. Easier to understand were the comic dancers in masks that were much more human who ran through physical humor of clowns and jumped in with the audience. The afternoon program began after a break, which fortunately allowed the courtyard to shit around and get some room for everyone. The highlight was when a set of skeleton dancers cam out and with their swords hack apart and dismember an effigy in dough of a former king who had killed a monk. It was a gruesome scene, but with demons with three eyes and horns running around everywhere, everything is relative.

I head back and am pressured the whole way back by jeeps with the tourists rushing back Leh blowing me off the road with their horns. A much more conservative driver now then most of the jeep drivers, I'm constantly getting passed which leads to as much tension going back to Leh as the fumes did on coming.

Day two was an entirely different matter though. Having had enough of the busses I decide to eat a leisurely breakfast and head out late trying to miss all the traffic. As it was, I had empty roads and sunny skies the whole way. The roads and scenery around Leh really are stunning when one can relax enough on the road to enjoy them. Getting up to Hemis, there aren't even 10 busses in the parking lot and I breeze right past the police checkpoint and drive right up to the foot of the monastery. Considering that just saved me a 2km walk with the camera equipment, I am already in a great mood! Getting into the monastery it was even more changed form yesterday in that there were a couple of thousand people there but spread out that there was plenty of room - and almost all were foreigners and photographers. There was hardly a Ladaki to be seen. The photographers were all over the place and a surprising number sporting the white lenses so indicative of the professionals. I ended up trying to shadow a couple of these guys for most of the day seeing this as a wonderful opportunity to be right behind the really good guys watching what they were shooting. I am looking forward to trying to find their shots in the magazine coming out in the next couple of months.

The dances themselves were much the same as day one, but without the feeling of being a sardine and being able to move around the courtyard and watch from different angles, it was much more enjoyable overall. All in all, I do not know what I really saw as the stories and meanings of the dances themselves were beyond me, but in terms of something different to see, I am very glad I stuck around for Hemis.

Previous Entry | Next Entry