Phugtal Monastery
Phugtal Monastery/Gompa was the main highlight of our trip. I can't say enough about this fantastic monastery, one has to visit this monastery in person in order to truly feel the essence of this fabulous place. After 22 hours of flight from Toronto to Delhi, 6 days of Bus/SUV ride from Delhi to Raru and finally the three days of walk, we finally made it to Phugtal; I would say that it was worth all the pain and troubles we went through in order to be at this place.
Phugtal Gompa: This Buddhist monastery (called Gompa in Ladakhi) is built on the rock face and lies in the interiors of Zanskar in India. Closest motorable road is three days of trek from here. This place had the most interesting Planning and Architecture that I saw in the entire Ladakh.The temperatures in winters tend to drop as much as -35C in the night and remember that these people do not have electricity and yet they live over there in the winters.
Finally at Phugtal Monastery: Yes we were quite tired when we finally made it to the monastery.
Phugtal Monastery: Perched in the cave, this is my favourite monsatery in India
Phugtal Monastery and Tsarap River
Monastery and the Monk: View of Phugtal from across the river
The Cave @ Phugtal: The close up view of the cave at Phugtal
Vertigo: The view from our room in the Monastery
View from The Monastery
TV Show: Monks of Phugtal Monastery watching some religious documentary on a VCR.
A Czech tourist; Michala we met at Phugtal.
posted by Sarju at
11/05/2006 07:36:00 AM
6 Comments:
Excellent Pictures. It was Notalgic to see your post as I did this trek back in Oct 1983. I was wondering if you knew what is the total distance between Darcha and Padam?
I have some black and white pictures when we did the trek.
How did you travel from Padam to Srinagar?
hi
Thanks for your interest. Please accept my apologies for being so slow in replying back to your query. I really have no excuse but my laziness and some work and socializing that I had to do.
Distance between Padam and Darcha: I think it is in the range of 100 to 135 km ... I will check up on it and confirm it with you laters.
We had reahced Padam from the Manali-Leh-Kargil-Padam (475 km of motorable road from Manali to Leh and another 450 km from Leh to Padam). We hired a SUV and completed this stretch in something like a week with sufficient rest at interesting places on the way.
I would love to look at your B/W photos sometime and see what this place used to look like about 35 years ago.
Have a good day ... Sarju
Amazing pictures Sarju... Just wanted to check, if walking is the only way to reach Phugtal Monastery. Is it also motorable???
Hiking is the only way to reach Phugtal, even the nearest helipad is half a day's walk from the monastery.
cheers ...
Man.. we have 4 days in Leh. Is it possible to visit Phugtal Gompa in that time frame?
It is soo darn tantalizing.. I simply have to do it.
only way to do it in four days would be to hire some helicopter. if you guys are really that commited, you can probably drive down to the start of the trek in 20-24 hours and than run to Phugtal. But I have never heard anyone doing it ... and there is no way I would recommend it either
cheers ... sarju
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