3 Khibber & Ki
Day trip by share-Jeep: From Kaza to Khibber and Ki Gompas
The road scenery from Kaza to Khibber:
While travelling from Kaza to Khibber by jeep, in the Spiti river valley, we saw some amazing snow-covered landscapes! Most of the road was clear of snow; except for short stretches when we had to get down and push the jeep through slushy snow. But the snow-covered scenes on either side of the road were awesome. See pictures of that below and on the right:
Khibber (4205m/13800ft)
17th April 2005 - We (Anna, Muriel & me) left Kaza in a Share jeep at 9:00am and reached Khibber at 10:30am, after covering a distance of 25Kms of most scenic and spectacular snow-covered mountains, all the way. Khibber claims to be the highest village in the world with a motor-able road and electricity! Certainly it had a most dramatic location, with snow covered mountains all around this small village. You can see the Gompa pictures above and above left. Muriel tried a Yak Horn for size, that was lying on the roof of the Gompa. The view of Khibber village and the hills beyond as seen from the Gompa roof in the pic below. Anna and the owner of Tea stall in the pic below. We left Khibber at noon heading down to Ki.
Ki (4116m/13500ft)
We reached Ki (pronounced Key) Gompa at 1:00pm. It is reputed to be the oldest and largest Gompa in Spiti at a height of 4116m/13500ft. It has spectacular appearance as if built into the rocky mountain (pic below an left). This Gompa built by Ringchen Zangpo has a valuable collection of Thangkas. The entrance to the Gompa and the New Prayer Hall inaugurated by the 14th Dalai Lama in pics left below.
A view from the rooftop of the Ki Gompa (pic below), of the surrounding snow-covered mountains. You can see the cluster of huts of Ki village, in the bottom center of the picture below.
