THE ETERNAL TRAVELER

A MONASTERY WITHOUT MONKS, HOW STRANGE

Me, Dolma, Dora and her friend Ruth

Dolma, my friend who sells me jewellery whenever I come to Leh, invited me on a very pleasant day out. Yet, a day I found to be an odd experience.

Landscape along the way

It seems her German friend, Dora with a friend named Roland, I assume both Buddhists, during one of their treks, wandered upon an antique, crumbling monastery out in hillsides west of Leh not far from Likir, a large Monastery founded in 1088 AD.

Our first view of Ney Monastery in the distance

side wall of Ney Monastery

Here, they felt the magical powers of the area, and decided to build a new monastery on the this mystical ground. After 12 years, they have finished Ney Monastery, but there are as yet no monks living there. Ney has become affiliated with Likir Monastery and the monks from Likir come and have pujas (prayer sessions) at Ney but none have yet moved in. “They will come.” Dora believes. But my friend Jigmet, at my hotel, says fewer and fewer young Ladakhis are becoming monks. “We are importing monks from Nepal,”
he claims.

Interior monastery art

All the exterior and interior art in Buddhist Monasteries have either religious meaning or depicts an important individual or event in the religion's history. In the prayer room of 1000 Buddhas, there are actually one thousand little statues of Buddha.

Poplar tree ceiling found in most Ladakhi monasteries and houses

Monastery room of a thousand Buddhas

Lady who cares for Ney Monastery

- The neighbour

Interior Monastery art

Travelers come and stay at Ney Monastery (I met a German lady, who with her husband and daughter were in residence for three weeks), but even now fewer travellers have come for extended stays. You too, could come and stay at Ney for an extended time.

After being served a satisfying vegetarian lunch, and taken a pleasant country side walk down the mountain road which leads to Ney, home we drove, back to Leh and our respective hotels.