Mission Impossible in the Nubra Valley?
The latest film "Fallout from the Mission-Impossible franchise with Tom Cruise takes place towards the end of the film in the Nubra Valley, which is of course a pretence of false facts. The scenes in the supposed Nubra Valley were shot in Norway and New Zealand. However, a certain likeness cannot be denied.
For us it is not a mission impossible, not a threatening end of the world by detonating an atomic bomb, but a leisurely trip along the Nubra Valley, to the great monasteries and later, unfortunately, the inevitable ride back over the Khardung La ...
But from above, the valley looks pretty grim ...
Dogs
We take our breakfast in the garden, the scent of the flowers and trees curling around our noses. The coffee is black and strong, the toasts crisp, the orange juice fruity. Only the jam as always a sneaky attack on the taste nerves …
Hundar, the village where we have spent the night, is an oasis with 200 houses and about 1000 inhabitants. It is the biggest and probably the most beautiful village in the whole valley. The Hundar River supplies the village with water, nowhere else do the apple and apricot trees grow so abundantly as here.
The second part of our trip is scheduled to start at nine. A few monasteries are waiting for us (we are working massively on our karma), afterwards we have to do the same route as yesterday in reverse. We are all ready to start, but Siddhart, the young Indian, decides that he wants to take a hot shower first (which takes a solid hour).
The cultural differences that can be seen in this example are impressive. But we are in a different world here, in Siddhart's world, and we have to accept that our ideas of punctuality and politeness are not applicable here. Anything else would be Eurocentric insistence on our values.
After all, Siddhart once, just once, contributed to our entertainment when he told us about his final exams at the typing course, when a massive earthquake struck in the middle of the exams.
"I did a lot of mistakes."
Just great. Absolutely worthy of Monty Python ...
The Nubra Valley
The tour through the Valley of Flowers is a journey of images, a video constantly running along. The eye is saturated by the changing views. It is captured in the hills and mountains surrounding the valley, whose slopes shine in all shades of grey and white and brown in the morning sun. And light and weightless above them, bands of clouds wandering leisurely across the sky.
The valley bottom, sometimes bare and hostile, then again with trees and green sprinkles of grass, is flat and intersected by the Sheyok River, obviously always looking for a riverbed or creating a new one. It is the king of the valley, blessing and curse at the same time, feared and worshipped. He brings glacier water to survive and water that kills. And he changes the valley according to his façon, ploughs it up, floods, fertilizes, waters and drowns.
But then, usually located on a low hill, a monastery or a village or a temple, sometimes with golden roofs, sometimes in the white of the monasteries and the brown-red of the windows on the bare facades. They seem to be foreign objects in the gloomy solitude of the remote valley, and yet they are part of it. As watchmen. As a link to the heavens. As protectors of the village and the people.
The The Nubra Valley is a high mountain valley on an average of 3000 meters above m Sea level and is located in the far north of India about 150 km north of Leh, Ladakh. The name is said to be derived from the word Ldumra, the "valley of flowers". The Nubra Valley is made up of the valley of the wild, 550 km long Shyok to the Indian-Pakistani border (Line of Control) and the valley of the Nubra, fed from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram, which flows into the Shyok at Diskit.
The Shyok has its source on the eastern side of the southern Karakorum. In Pakistan the river flows into the Indus. Southwest of the Nubra Valley between Shyok and Indus lies the Ladakh Range. The Karakoram Pass connects the Nubra Valley on the upper reaches of the Shyok with the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, which belongs to China. Today it is no longer important as a trade route. [Copyright Wikipedia]
Diskit Gompa,
The monastery Diskit Gompa, located on a steep slope, is hardly visible from afar in the grey wasteland. Only when approaching – the car is panting up the steep path – one recognizes the huge dimensions of the monastery complex. It is the oldest and largest Buddhist complex in the Nubra Valley and is home to the 100 monks. The monastery administration runs a school that has computer facilities and teaches Tibetan children of the region in natural science courses in English.
Metreya - the future Buddha
The 32 meter high statue on a hill below the Diskit Gompa faces the Shyok River. Construction of the statue began in April 2006, and it was erected on 25th of July 2010 by the Dalai Lama. There is also a statue of the future Buddha inside the monastery.
According to the Buddhist tradition, Metreya a bodhisattva who will appear on earth in the future, attain full enlightenment, and teach pure Dharma. According to the scriptures, Maitreya will be a successor to the current Buddha, Gautama Buddha. The prophecy of the arrival of Metreya refers to a time in the future when the Dharma will be forgotten by most of the earthly world.
Metreya currently resides in Tuṣita Heaven, which is said to be accessible through meditation. Gautama Buddha also lived here before he was born into the world, as all bodhisattvas live in the Tuṣita heaven before they descend into the human kingdom to become Buddhas. Although all bodhisattvas are destined to become Buddhas, the concept of a bodhisattva is very different in Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. In Theravada Buddhism a bodhisattva is someone who strives for full enlightenment (arahantship in Pali), while in Mahayana Buddhism a bodhisattva is someone who has already reached a very advanced state of grace or enlightenment, but before entering nirvana holding back to help others. [Copyright Wikipedia]
Well
A side trip to Sumur, another of these magnificent villages, is worthwhile because here the symbiosis between village and monastery, i.e. between heaven and earth, so to speak, is presented in concentrated form. Everything is there, the modernity as well as a time long gone, the preserved beauty from the past as well as the ugliness of the parking lots where the jeeps of the tourists are crowded.
It's a peculiar village. Winding alleys lead through the labyrinth of the village, past brooks to the monastery, which is located a little above the village, between meadows and trees. Like most monasteries in Ladakh it is in good condition, the ca. 50 monks keep it tidy and clean.
The way back – Khardung La 2.0
On the way back, speechlessness has disappeared, the abysses have lost their terror. And yet you remain sitting still, letting the images come very close so that you can feel them one last time.
We follow the river with a certain melancholy, it feels like greeting an old friend for the last time. Then it disappears, we dive into the colourless world of mountains, into the world of canyons and abysses ...
Bye Bye
And then we are back in Leh. We have survived Khardung La, we have survived Siddhart, we have gained many experiences and impressions. And the images will accompany us for a lifetime …
Then goodbye Christine, Anu and Siddhart, you've been good company. I wish you a good life.
P.S. Matching Song: Dubokaj - Ocean of Air
And here the journey continues ...
