4 Dhankar

Anna near the Prayer Flags overlooking the valley

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Tabo to Rekong-Peo

Landslide area on Highway-22

View from Highway-22

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20th April 2005: Got the 8:00am bus to Shimla. At 8:45am passed Karcham. At 10:30am passed Taranda Maa Temple (took pics). At 11:15am Jeori stop for lunch. Arrived 5:30pm Shimla and checked in for Dorm Bed at Vikrant.

Tomorrow plan to go to western end of HP and see Dharamsala, Dalhousie and Mc-Leod Ganj.

See all pictures of this journey on Flickr Set:

18th April 2005 - By Noon checked out of the GH at Kaza and took a share Jeep (along with Anna, Muriel) to take us first to Dhankar Gompa and then drop us at Tabo. We headed east on the road going up the valley and at Schilling took a turn to Dhankar, about 8Km up on a hillside. The Gompa is perched in a spectacular location on rocky mountain surrounded by weather beaten and wind eroded mountain sides (pic above and left above). We reached Dhankar at 1:45pm. Dhankar means fortress and that is what the monastery was initially. Today it is a repository of Buddhist Scriptures, sculptures and frescoes. Pic left me in front of an eroded hillside near entrance to the Gompa.

Pictures above and below are the valley view looking down from the Dhankar Gompa from a narrow ledge on side of Gompa. On the left are pictures of the artifacts inside the main sanctum of the gompa's prayer hall. Pic left below the smiling Head Monk of the Gompa and below a stuffed baby Yak hanging by the Gompa door as a sign of good omen.

In pic left Muriel and Anna emerge from a low narrow tunnel that leads to a narrow viewing ledge to look down the river valley below. The Valley pictures shown above were taken from that ledge. In pic below Anna & Muriel try out some Tibetan Head gear that are used for traditional dances performed during festivals in the Gompa.

We started from Dhankar around 3:00pm and reached Tabo by 5:30pm.

Stayed there that night in the same Millennium Monastic Guest House.

19th April 2005: After breakfast settled my bills for Tabo GH, said bye to Anna and Muriel and went to the main road and at 9:30am took a share-jeep (Rs 170) to Rekong Peo arriving there at 3:30pm. Checked into Sairaj-Inn for the night. Hot-water Bath, Lunch and Internet! at the adjoining Cybercafe Raj Internet.

View from Rekong-Peo Hotel ... Vikrant-Inn rear Balcony

Inside view of Taranda Maa Temple