Tabo II

25th September 2022

Woke up to rain. And, wondered if my plans for a morning trek up into the hills was washed off.

The cloud line was quite low.

Fortunately, by 0900 the sky cleared and the sun came thru.

Started of at around 1000 to a local Gompa.

The Gompa was built sometime in the 9th Century. It is one of the oldest continuously active Gompa.  The insides of the mud walls are covered with paintings. As is normal, there are thousands of painting of Buddha. But, there are also seemingly Hindu Gods and Goddess painted on some of the walls.

Local tale states that the wood for this Gompa came from trees that grew from a single stick which was stuck into the ground by a visiting Buddhist monk. He planted the stick as a mark of where he wanted the Gompa built.

But, work could not start as there was not enough wood. Trees came off the stick planted enabling the Gompa to be built.

Another story is that when the stick was planted, the Gompa was built overnight by seemingly unknown forces.

 That is not the Gompa I was referring to. This is a newly built Gompa which turned out to be locked today.

That is the main Gompa. You enter thru the door on the right. The entrance is low, so yiu have to duck. The inside is lit by a few lamps in from of the main Buddha figure. There are torches provided which allows visitors to view the paintings on the walls. The colour on the paintings is still so clear and sharp. Every wall, including the ceiling is covered with paintings.

These are two smaller Gompas, but built around the same time. The inside of these are covered with paintings as well.

 

The trek was to visit a Gompa that was built up in the hills. And then walk to the caves that could be seen in the hills to the North of Tabo.

The walk up was steep. There were steps constructed, but still, needed a breather halfway. There was a lady minding the Gompa. The only light they have is a solar powered torch which we used to see the paintings inside the deity room.

 These are pictures from the outside.

Then started the walk to the caves. The first one was simple. Not too far away.

 The picture shows a surrounding wall, and a faintly visible track to the cave. Believe me, this was the easiest walk.

 The first picture is the cave entrance. The second is a hole in the ground which my cheerful guides wanted me to believe was a toilet hole. 

The first picture showing the inside of the cave also shows that the inhabitants had felt the need for a holder in the wall.

The second picture shows the ceiling. Blackened by the fires that were lit over time.

The going got a bit tougher after this. We were walking on paths beaten down as people walked repeatedly. At times, we had to figure out the best way up. The terrain is stone, and lots of loose pebbles and mud.
 

That is the path we had to take to reach the caves. This one is at least not at a gradient.

The stone you see, with a little imagination , looks like an elephant head.

 That is what a majority of the mountainside is made up of. If not this, it is hard rock.

 My guides, walking along very briskly, on a wider stretch of the path.

 That's the second cave. The first was easy. Here, we had to crawl up a hole which required one to walk bent in the mountainside to reach the actual cave.

 The last picture is the hole that we crawled out of to reach the actual cave space. Exit was the same way. 

This is the view out from the cave.

The next cave we went to was a bit more difficult.

 This is from the top. After we had climbed up, using stones by the side and hauling ourselves up.

It is now I realised why two of them had come. To haul me up my the scurf of the next if I could not manage. I barely did. Needed a haul up at the edge.

It was amazing. Never done something like this before.

That shows you the inside of the cave. And, a view of Tabo from the cave.

A lot of these caves have tourists camping in them. Believe as long as permission is got from the Gompa, you can. Well, not me. I need creature comforts.

The guides then asked me if I was okay enough to go further. We did.

The walk changed a bit.

That is what we walked up.

To reach this.

We had climbed about 500 meters, from the Tabo baseline of 3200 meters.

We sat there a while. Saw some people coming down the mountainside, that you can see in the last picture.

Believe locals go out early for two reasons, into those mountains.

The first, post rains there is a mushroom that grows. Extremely rare.

Second, they go hunt a flower, to give their ladies. Again, extremely rare.

If you peer close enough, you may see them, six of them. They came trotting down the mountainside as though it was football pitch.

Started down in a while. Did not take a picture of the structures as there was a foreigner sitting there , meditating, with his shoes next to him. Was offended. Piece of shit could have taken the shoes off away from the structure.

And, we started back.

Had to follow.

Got back safe.

Lovely morning. Had excitement, pushing of the lungs, culture. And, good fun as one has on a trek like this.

Got back had a hot bath and ate well.

Went for a walk in the afternoon to loosen the muscles, to a bridge which I was told was not too far. It was a couple of kilometers away. And, had a gradient.

Well worth the walk. Sat for a while then started back.

Tomorrow, I drive down this road. 

Will not have signals for a couple of days.