India: Hemis Festival Cultural Tour

Route: Leh airport to hotel

Your guide and driver meet you at Leh airport and take you to the hotel. Every flight to Leh lands in the morning, because winds pick up later in the day at an airport about 3,250 m high. Leh is busy in festival week, and the airport and the bazaar both fill up.

Leh is at 3,500 m. The Ladakh tourism advisory asks new arrivals to rest on the first day and add no more than about 500 m of sleeping height a day after that. Today is for rest. Drink plenty of fluids and skip alcohol tonight.

Experience of the Day

–  Met at Leh airport by your guide and driver.

–  A full rest day at 3,500 m, as the Ladakh tourism advisory asks of new arrivals.

Food

Lunch and dinner at the Leh hotel.

Activities to Do

Light rest only today. No sightseeing is planned on arrival day.

Route: Leh hotel – Old Town – Leh hotel

The morning is free for rest, and a slow walk through the Old Town is fine. In the afternoon your guide holds a briefing at the hotel on what a Tsechu is and how to watch one. Hemis marks the birth of Padmasambhava, the Indian teacher who is said to have helped establish Buddhism in Tibet in the 8th century and who is honoured as the founder of the Nyingma tradition. The festival falls on the 10th day of the fifth month of the Tibetan calendar, which is why its date changes every year.

The briefing then sets out the dances. Cham is a masked and costumed dance performed in several Tibetan Buddhist schools, and it serves as a teaching, a meditation and an offering. Watching it is said to bring merit to those who see it. The study note you receive covers who the masked figures are, what the sequence means, and the etiquette of the courtyard.

Experience of the Day

–  A briefing on Padmasambhava, the Tsechu and the cham dances.

–  A study note on the masked figures and the order of the dances.

–  A first pulse-oximeter reading for each guest.

Food

Breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Leh hotel.

Activities to Do

A slow Old Town walk if you wish; the briefing in the afternoon.

Shopping

The main bazaar sells prayer flags, singing bowls and warm layers, which are useful for the cold festival mornings.

Route: Leh – Thiksey – Shey – Stakna – Leh

Thiksey, 19 km from Leh, is a Gelug monastery of the mid-15th century, with twelve storeys rising up a hill. The dawn prayer begins at about 6:30 am, and the horns, drums and chanting in the hall show the music you will hear at Hemis. A Maitreya about 15 m high stands in a temple built in 1970. At Shey, 15 km from Leh, a palace and gompa were built in 1655 by King Deldan Namgyal, with a copper-gilt Shakyamuni about 12 m high rising through three floors.

Stakna, on the Indus, follows the Drukpa Kagyu school, the same school as Hemis, and its founding in the late 16th century by a Bhutanese teacher gives it a link with Bhutan. The visit prepares you for Hemis by showing how a Drukpa monastery looks and sounds on an ordinary morning. You are back in Leh by the early afternoon, with the rest of the day free.

Experience of the Day

–  Dawn prayer at Thiksey, with horns, drums and chanting.

–  The 12 m Shakyamuni at Shey.

–  Stakna, a Drukpa Kagyu monastery of the same school as Hemis.

Food

Breakfast before the dawn prayer; lunch near Stakna; dinner at the Leh hotel.

Activities to Do

Monastery visits with short walks and a rooftop view at Thiksey.

Route: Leh – Takthok – Chemrey – Hemis – Leh

Takthok, about 46 km east of Leh, belongs to the Nyingma school, the school of Padmasambhava himself. It was built in the 16th century around the cave where he is said to have meditated, and its name means rock roof. Chemrey, a few kilometres on, belongs to the Drukpa Kagyu school and was founded in 1664 in memory of King Sengge Namgyal.

Hemis, about 45 km from Leh, was established in the 1630s under the same king and belongs to the Drukpa Kagyu school. You arrive in the afternoon and walk the complex while the courtyard is being readied. The prayer halls and the museum are open, with old thangkas, statues and ceremonial objects, and masks may be on display. There is no ceremony in the evening. The tenth day of the lunar month is a holy day, and some villagers visit the monastery to pray.

Your guide points out the courtyard, the raised platforms and the central pole, the balconies and the roofs where you will sit tomorrow, and the route the dancers take.

Experience of the Day

–  The rock-roofed cave temple of Takthok.

–  Chemrey, founded in 1664 in memory of King Sengge Namgyal.

–  Hemis the day before the festival, with its courtyard, museum and prayer halls.

Food

Breakfast at the Leh hotel; lunch near Hemis; dinner at the Leh hotel.

Activities to Do

Monastery visits with short walks; an afternoon walk through the Hemis complex.

The Human Story: A Village Gets Ready

Hemis village fills with relatives and visitors before the festival, and families put on festival clothes. Women often wear the perak, a headdress shaped like the hood of a cobra, studded with turquoise and coral and fixed with straps, which can be very heavy. Today it is worn mainly on festive occasions. Ask before photographing anyone in festival dress.

Route: Leh – Hemis monastery – Leh

The courtyard is already filling when you arrive at about 7:30 am. Your guide leads you to the place chosen for you, on a bench, a balcony or a roof, and the monks begin with prayers and the music of horns, drums and cymbals. The dances begin in the morning, with the start time varying from year to year and between accounts, and your guide confirms it with the monastery.

The first dancers, thirteen Black Hat dancers in broad hats with coloured ribbons, move clockwise round the courtyard to mark out and purify the ground. They are followed by the figures of Padmasambhava and his eight manifestations, each in a different mask and with different ritual objects, and the dancers spin around the central pole to the sound of horns and cymbals. After a long break at midday, the afternoon continues with the protectors of the teachings, and smaller sacred thangkas may be shown for blessings.

The festival is also a fair. Local artisans and traders sell handicrafts, jewellery and food around the monastery, and you may be offered chhang, the barley beer, at the edge of the crowd. The group returns to Leh in the late afternoon.

Experience of the Day

–  The Black Hat dancers marking out the courtyard.

–  The eight manifestations of Padmasambhava in masks and silk.

–  The fair around the monastery, with food, crafts and festival dress.

Food

An early breakfast at the Leh hotel; a lunch box at Hemis; dinner at the Leh hotel.

Activities to Do

A full festival day seated, with breaks; a short walk around the fair.

Shopping

Handicrafts, jewellery and textiles are sold at the fair. Buy from the stallholder, and bargain gently.

The Human Story: Masks and Merit

The dancers are monks, and for the length of the dance they are said to become the deities they wear. Many lamas explain that seeing the fierce masks again and again teaches impermanence and takes the fear out of death. For the villagers, coming to watch is itself an act of merit, and many have walked a long way.

Route: Leh – Hemis monastery – Leh

The second day brings new dancers in new costumes, and senior lamas lead prayers between the dances. You know the order now, and you can watch for the details your guide pointed out yesterday: the skeleton dancers, the guardians of the cremation ground, who remind the audience of impermanence; the protectors, with hooks, ropes and chains for binding the forces of harm.

The final act is the destruction of a dough effigy that stands for evil and ignorance. The pieces are scattered in four directions, which is a way of dispersing obstacles from the community and the year. The crowd cheers, and the festival is over. You return to Leh in the late afternoon, and tonight is a rest night.

Experience of the Day

–  New dancers and costumes on the second day.

–  The skeleton dancers and the protectors.

–  The destruction of the dough effigy, and its pieces scattered in four directions.

Food

An early breakfast at the Leh hotel; a lunch box at Hemis; dinner at the Leh hotel.

Activities to Do

A full festival day seated, with breaks; the closing ritual in the afternoon.

Route: Leh hotel – Stok palace and museum – Leh hotel

Today is slower. Sleep in, and in the late morning drive to Stok, about 15 km from Leh. The palace there was built in the early 19th century as the royal family's summer home, and a few rooms are open as a museum. The collection includes thangkas, coins, weapons, ceremonial jewellery and the headgear worn by the rulers.

The perak, the cobra-hooded headdress you saw at the festival, is explained here: its shape links the wearer to the serpent deities of the underworld, and the number of turquoise rows once told the family's rank. It was passed from mother to daughter at marriage. The afternoon is free, and a good dinner in Leh is the right end to the festival.

Experience of the Day

–  Stok palace and its museum of royal heirlooms.

–  A look at the perak and how its turquoise rows were counted.

–  A free afternoon after two long days.

Food

Breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Leh hotel or near Stok.

Activities to Do

A short museum visit; the rest of the day is free.

Shopping

Leh's main bazaar sells silver and turquoise jewellery. Ask your guide about the difference between old and new pieces.

Route: Leh – Basgo – Likir – Alchi – Leh

Today is a day trip west along the Indus, to see where the painted tradition behind the festival begins. At Basgo, a hilltop of ruined royal buildings holds temples dedicated to Maitreya, with murals of the mid-16th century in Central Tibetan style. Likir, founded in 1065, follows the Gelug school and is known for its 23 m Maitreya, completed in 1999.

Alchi, about 65 km from Leh, is a group of temples on the south bank of the Indus at about 3,100 m. Tradition credits the translator Rinchen Zangpo with founding it, and scholars place the main temples between the 11th and early 13th centuries. The Dukhang holds mandalas of the Vairochana cycle and a royal drinking scene, and the Sumtsek holds three colossal clay figures with murals in styles that came from Kashmir. Photography is not allowed inside. You return to Leh in the evening.

Experience of the Day

–  The Basgo murals of the 16th century.

–  Likir's 23 m Maitreya.

–  The Dukhang and the Sumtsek at Alchi, with no photography inside.

Food

Breakfast at the Leh hotel; lunch at Likir or Alchi; dinner at the Leh hotel.

Activities to Do

Temple visits with short walks and a long afternoon at Alchi.

Route: Leh hotel – Leh airport

Your driver takes you to the airport. Every flight out of Leh leaves in the morning. If you are staying on in Ladakh, today is the day to move on to your next stop.

Guests with an evening international flight from Delhi can connect the same day. The Leh–Delhi flight takes about 1 hour 20 minutes.

Experience of the Day

–  Transfer to Leh airport for a morning flight.

–  Time for final purchases before the airport, if your flight is later.

Food

Breakfast at the hotel; other meals as you choose.

Activities to Do

None scheduled. The day is kept free to flex around your flight time.

Shopping

Leh's main bazaar, for pashmina, Ladakhi jewellery and prayer flags, is a short walk from the hotel.