Day 95

In the morning we are desperate to go to lower levels because this starts being dangerous for Tià. He really needs to be below 2500 m and soon. Thinking about it we didn’t check the altitudes where we were going to sleep, we just trusted Chaman with the route and the rise was way too fast. From 0m to around 2500m in Manali, and then, we sleep at 4000m! From 0 to 4000 in just 2 days! It is supposed that you should go 300m higher per day to be safe and avoid the altitude sickness…

Some views from Kaza:

Today we’ll drive around 100km to Nako, a little village with Reo Purgyal on the back (it’s the highest mountain in Himachal Pradesh with its 6816 m). The village is now on a more stable location near the Nako Lake (formed by the slopes of the mountains of Reo Purgyal). In the past was situated on the opposite bank across the Nako river, but it needed to be shifted because of tectonic uplifting of the site.

On the way we’ll stop to see Dhankhar, Tabo monastery and the Gue’s Monastery with its 500-year-old mummy.

Dhankhar:

The landscape starts to change with the apple trees on the valley:

Next stop will be the Tabo Monastery, it was built in 996 A.D. It is completely forbidden to take photos on the inside to preserve the frescoes. We enter with a young monk, who explains as good as he can what we barely see (it is really dark, there are no lights or windows in the inside). I am amazed to be in an ancient Buddhist temple, you can feel the history and the quietness in this place.

New and old stuppas (edification that contain relics and are used for meditation in Buddhism) outside the Tabo monastery:

Tià is feeling a bit better, so we have some light lunch here in Tabo before we continue our trip. Our next visit will be to see someone very special… the remains of a 15th-century Buddhist monk named Sangha Tenzin. He was discovered in 1975 when the stupa that was housing him collapsed during an earthquake. Since then, the body has shown little deterioration, despite being exposed to the elements and having no artificial preservation.

Now it is situated in a poor construction, but in the next years it will be resituated in a proper monument, this temple:

By the way, do you see the mountain behind the lion? That’s Tibet!!! We are in a sensitive/restricted zone along the border Indo-China border, which requires an Inner Line Permit to travel through (those are the papers that we needed to do yesterday). From here it is obvious the presence of military and police everywhere; this border is completely closed, and if someone tries to cross the border… well they will not ask about your passport, probably you’ll just be shoot. As usual this days there is any phone net available. But here, it is also completely forbidden to use a satellite phone.

Finally, we reach safely Nako. I love this place… no tourists here, no souvenirs… just people living on their traditional way.