Zanskar (Penzila to Padum Karsha and Zangla)

Two small, turquoise, high altitude lakes with camping sites, and views of the surrounding permafrost mountains are the highlights of the Penzi La pass, which is 160 Km from Kargil and at an altitude of 4,401 to 4,450 meters, the highest point on the Kargil – Zanskar road. This pass is more of a table land and, unlike the Zojila, has plenty of flat spaces and things to see, the Drang-Drung, for instance. Kishtwar is behind the mountains of the right.

Zanskar being half way through the pass, some 35 km, after Rangdum. It is spread over more than 5,000 Sq.Km. Zanskar remains cut off from the rest of the world for more than eight months a year due to blockade of the Penzi La. Besides there are no air service. Today Zanskar is one of the least interfered with microcosms of Ladakh and one of the last surviving cultural settlers of Tibet. Put simply, systems such as polyandry, which are more or less extinct in Leh town and in the more advanced villages of Leh district, still survive in some pockets of Zanskar. In 1999 around a quarter of Zanskar still practiced polyandry. By then several shops and spring up in Padum and you could actually by things with money

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Emperor Kanishka (Aka Kanika) had got 108 chortens constructed in the first century AD. One of them is in Sani. The holy site at Sani is called Turtot Gyat and is one of the 8 holiest Buddhist sites in the world. That is why most of the Luminaries of Himalayan Buddhism including Padma Sambhava, Naropa and Marpa have visited Sani. This venerable monastery had ancient and medieval frescoes.

Rangdum: (3,657 meters, 130 km from Kargil town, 65 Km from Panikhar). The Rangdum monastery has tiny “museum” with interesting Tibetan and other artifacts. Around forty monks live in the gompa. It is difficult to agree with accounts that date the Gompa to the 8^th century. 18^th century is more likely. The villagers who live near the Gompa are basically the agriculture shrifts of the monastery, a guidebook informs us.

This monastery is built in a spectacular cave, lies on the Padum-Kishtwar trekking route, just before the ascent to the Omasi-La Pass begins. Situated like a swallow's nest on the rock face of the Ating Gorge, the monastery is associated with Naropa, a famous India Yogi. The two caves around which the present monastery has developed are said to have been used by Naropa for solitary mediation. The frescos on the cave walls are very old and reflect a high degree of artistic achievement.

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Stongday Gompa is built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the oasis-like village below. It lies 20 Km to the north of Padum, on the road leading to Zangla. Stongday is now the second largest monastic establishment of Zanskar with 60 resident Gelukpa monks. The highlight of this monastery is its Gon Khang (temple of guardian deities).

Phugthal is the most spectacularly located monastic establishment anywhere in Ladakh. The Phugthal complex spills out of the mouth of a huge cave high up in the sheer mountain face of a lateral gorge through which a major tributary of the Lungnak River flows. Perhaps the most isolated monastery in Zanskar, its foundation dates back to the early 12th century. The monastery has frescos and ceiling decorations reflecting strong Indian artistic and oceanographic influence.

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Padum: Once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Zanskar. Padum (3,505 Mtr) is the present-day administrative headquarter of the region. Padum is 240 Kms from Kargil and almost 80 Kms from the Penzila. It has a decent government tourist bungalow and several private hotels and restaurants. Today Zanskar has telephones with the facility to call any part of India- and perhaps the world, a facility not available elsewhere in the Suru valley. The Town’s highlights include the mud “Palace” of the local “Raja”. There is also small monastery in the town. There are 8^th century rock carvings near the river bank in Padum (There are 25 villages in Zanskar which had two “Kings”. One each at Padum and Zangla. Each ruled over six or seven villages, because there were several villages that were under neither “King” through they might have loosely allied with either of these. It is doubtful if either “King”  ever had more than three thousand subjects. Across the expanse of cultivation lies the old village of  Pibiting, dominated by its picturesque hilltop monastery, a superb manifestation of Stupa architecture.

Zangla is 35 km from Padum. The Zanskar river, which leads from Padum to Zangla and then Leh freezes so hard in the winters that for a few weeks one can walk on it. This is known as the chaadar. The trek from Padum to the motorable road in Leh district can take a week. There are little caves by the frozen river in which travelers camp at night. Zangla is base camp for in which travelers camp at night. Zangla is base camp for trekkers in the summers. There is a nunnery nearby. There are no formal hotels in the village, but some families take in guests.

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Mulbekh is 25 Kms ahead of Bodh Kharboo, as we travel on the National Highway from Leh to Kargil, but another way, it is 45 Km from Kargil. It is 190 Km, from Leh.

The monastery itself has been built atop at high rock, 200 Mtrs. above the main road. It contains precious relics, however, right next to the road there is a 9 Mtr. deep relief idol of the Maitreya Buddha, carved out of a rock. This is the future Buddha. Maitreys is also known as Chamba.

The sculpture dates to the time which the missionaries who brought Buddhism to Ladakh were from Kashmir, not Tibet, it was probably carved in the 8th century AD.  This explains why where are shaiite influences in the Idol and the artwork in the monastery, which was built a few centuries later. There is a monastery at the other end of the valley. It is at the bottom of a large phallus-shaped rock.

Wakha (Rigyal) is a twin village of Mulbekh. It has nunnery (Chomo-Gompa) – called the Jungchup Chosling monastry, very close to the highway. If you are traveling from Leh, Wakha comes just before Mulbekh, it is located in the Wakha river valley.

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Shargole is another 10 Kms ahead of Mulbekh, or 35 km, before Kargil, it's small but old Ge-Lugs Pa Buddhist monastery has fellow but interesting frescoes. Inside the Gompa is an icon of an Avalokiteswar. There in the Gompa is also three images of Tara, caved in wood by Tibetan artists. It just out of a brown, granite cliff and appears as if it is suspended in the middle of the mountain. This architectural quirk makes it an object of curiosity among local people, too. The panoramic view from the verandah of the “cantilever monastery” is stunning and helps the worshipper concentrate better. There is a tiny Buddhist nunnery below.

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