Incredible Himalayas 2: Tsam dance in the Chamdei monastery + Tso Moriri lake, Ladakh.

Incredible Himalayas - this phrase is the most accurate name for the November photo tour in Ladakh, Little Tibet, India.
Why?
Because in a very short time - 10 days - the program of this photo tour contains a magnificent collection of incredible events, fantastic places and landscapes, close contact with the culture of Tibetan Buddhism.
Why is intimate contact?
Because the photo tour is held in a completely non-tourist season: and, most likely, we will be the only travelers who will enjoy watching and photographing the Buddhist sacred ceremony of Chamdey Angchok in the huge Buddhist Monastery-City of Ladakh - Chamdey Gonpa.
It also means that we will be the only photographers in the monastery square and our photographs will be unique, and when photographing, we will not interfere with each other and push around in a dense crowd of photographers, as happens in Ladakh monasteries at the summer Buddhist mysteries with Tsam Dance, and it means - purely from a spatial point of view, let us unfold our creativity and imagination when shooting at full strength.
And also we will fall into two very beautiful places from all points of view - on the high mountain lake Tso Moriri and drive through the entire Lamayuru valley, along the top road to the most beautiful place Moon Land - Lunar Earth.
Typically, photographers visit these places in the summer, and the pictures of Tso Moriri and Lamayuru, captured in November, have never come across.
But it must be very beautiful: the autumn Tso Moriri - in all its autumn power of the water surface of the alpine lake and the beautiful Lamayuru - are still not covered in snow, but already harsh, preparing for winter.
The photo tour is fully consistent with its markers: EXTREME AND FOR THE BOLD, and involves visiting the highlands very distant from Lech, including spending the night in the Changpa nomad house on Lake Tso Moriri.
The trip is so saturated with a wide variety of events that it obviously will not correspond to the time allotted for it: and if only 10 days pass on the calendar, then for photographers they will become Ladakh Eternity).
By the way, it is from such photo tours that personal photo exhibitions are brought).
A lot of all types of photography are planned: landscape and panoramic photography, ethnographic photography, portrait and genre photography.
For beginner photographers, this photo tour is an opportunity to go through a good school of photography in the field.
For curious travelers, whose presence is also welcomed in this Ladakh photo tour, this is an opportunity to get acquainted with the culture of Tibetan Buddhism and, if you wish, start learning to take pictures.

The photos shown in the description of our tour are clickable to a large size, just click on the photo and it will open in a new window.
The description of each day of the tour indicates the total mileage per day and the height of the places visited.

Day 1, November 11: Delhi - Leh (air flight). Adaptation. Leh, walks in the Old City, height 3 600 m.
Arrival at New Delhi International Airport (India) from your country of residence.
We issue an electronic visa, get luggage and go to one of the terminals of local airlines:
D3 is in the same building
D2 - a little further, you need to turn left from the building of the terminal of international airlines and walk 100 m through the tunnel.
This is a common practice on our tours in Ladakh:
flights on which participants of our tours fly to New Delhi airport usually arrive at terminal D3 from 2 to 5 in the morning, immediately go to the departure terminal and fly off to Leh in one of the morning flights.
We take air tickets for the Delhi – Leh flight so that the time margin between external and internal flights is 3-4 hours.
Flight Delhi-Leh, 1 hour 20 minutes.
By the way, the Leh-Delhi flight itself is a stunningly beautiful sight, since we will fly over to the Himalayan Range.
We recommend booking seats on the port side of the aircraft in advance - when landing in Leh, this side is the most shooting.

Including we will fly over Lake Tso Moriri, which we will later arrive in jeeps.

Upon arrival in Ladakh at Leh airport, the participants of the legendary photo tour right at the terminal exit are greeted by a team of organizers with the PHOTO TOUR sign, then we go to our cozy, quiet and most importantly - a warm hotel, we are located, we rest after flights.

The first day in Lech - acclimatization:
we drink tea and coffee, we talk about the photo tour program, in the afternoon we will go for a leisurely adaptation walk in the center of Leh.
In the evening after dinner, our lecture will be held, an introduction to the culture of Tibetan Buddhism in Russian.
Hotel in Leh.

Day 2, November 12: Spituk Monastery. Hindu River Valley, Chelling Gorge, car tour of Ladakh, about 80 km, height 3,600 m.
In the morning we leave for the Buddhist monastery Spituk Gompa - one of the most beautiful monasteries in the Ladakh Valley.

Morning puja (service) at the Spituk Monastery, and then a detailed acquaintance with the Spituk Gompa.
Visit to Kale Temple, or the Temple of the Dharma Protectors of Spituk Monastery.
Blessing pooja for a group in Calais - Temple.
Next we go down the long stairs of Spituk Gonpa to the village of Spituk:
walk around the village, genre photography on the streets of Spituk village.
And at the end of the day, we will go by car down the Indus Valley to the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar rivers.
A little walk through the Chelling Valley.
Landscape photography.

Return to Leh.
Hotel in Leh.

Days 3-4, November 13-14: Ladakh: Chamdey Monastery. Buddhist Mystery Chamdey Angchok, about 100 km every day, altitude 3 600 - 4 000 m.
Presence and photography at the Chamdei Angchok Buddhist Festival at the Chamdey Gonpa Monastery.
The mystery of Chamdey Angchok is accompanied by Dances of Tsam Lamas of high initiations in ancient ritual masks and costumes and communication of trained monks with spirits through the oracle.
Since the holiday is held around the clock, these two days will be very eventful - events, photography, emotions.
For information: The sacred ritual ritual dance of Tsam is performed by Lamas, dressed in solemn costumes and masks depicting the gods.
In essence, Tsam is a dance-meditation, during which the gods seem to come to life in the minds of not only Lamas, but also pilgrims and are present at the festival with all believers.

In general, we can say that in these two days we will find ourselves in a completely alternative version of our world.
By the way, this photo in Photoshop or another graphics editor was practically not processed, a clean frame.
How to photograph in this way is also one of the points of our lectures on photography during the November photo tour.

We have been visiting Buddhist mysteries with the performance of Tsam Dance since 2010.
And still not used to the fact that these are Masks.
Here the world really changes, the Masks come to life, the world becomes completely different and very strange and essentially correct events occur.
During our trip, we will talk a lot about the culture of living Tibetan Buddhism.
And about the Mysteries - including.

These two days will be filled from morning to evening with absolutely incredible actions and fantastic photography.
It will be all:
the emotional, lively faces of Tibetan grandmothers who come to the mystery in ancient family decorations and national costumes, there will be pujas - with long trumpets and bass Tibetan drums, there will be children - their faces open, and there will be - Tsam Dance - the purest and most honest of all seen us on this planet action.
And the Buddhist monastery Chamdei Gonpa, which in itself is one of the most unique city-monasteries of the Ladakh Valley.

And, of course, on one of these two days, returning from Chamdei Gonpa, we will definitely meet and visit the magnificent Ladakh monastery - Ladakh Patala - the Buddhist monastery Tiksey Gonpa.

In the evenings - lectures, viewing photos, individual counseling.
Hotel in Leh.

Day 5, November 15: Monasteries Matho, Stakna, White stupas of Shay Gonpa. Height is 3 600 m, about 50 km.
Today we will visit two Buddhist monasteries Matho Gonpu and Stakna Gonpu, each of which is unique in its own way even for the Ladakh Valley.
Stakna Monastery (Stakna Gompa) is a small and very beautiful Buddhist monastery of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition.

Stakna Gompa was founded at the end of the 16th century by Bhutanese scientists and Lama Chosce Jamyang Palkar.
The name of Stakna Gompa literally translates as “tiger nose”, and was given to the monastery because it stands on a hill resembling a tiger.
In the gompa is the famous statue of Arya Avalokiteshvara from Kamrup.

About 30 monks live in the monastery.
Stakna Gompa is also interesting in that it is the only monastery in the Ladakh Valley where Bhutanese influence can be traced:
from the atmosphere of the monastery to the frescoes of the 16th century, which decorated the prayer room.

Matho Monastery, Matho Gompa (also Mashale, Masho, Mashro, Matho) is a very unusual monastery, the only monastery of the Sakya-pa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Matho Monastery was built in the first half of the 16th century.
The monastery is famous for its carved wooden decor, thangkas, including mandalas.
Every year, the oracle festival takes place in the monastery, where monks who have gone through lengthy retreats receive the power to predict and, standing on the parapet, blindfolded perform amazing feats in handling swords and knives.
There are two monk oracles constantly living in the monastery, and perhaps we will be able to meet them.

On the way back - evening photography of the ancient snow-white stupas of Shay Gonpa.

There is an incredibly beautiful evening light, including reflected, between the stupas.

Hotel in Leh.

Day 6, November 16: Leh - Alpine lake Tso-Moriri. Altitude 4,800 m, distance of about 250 km.
Today will begin what is why this tour has two markers “EXTREME” and “FOR THE BOLD” - we will go to a long and interesting from a landscape point of view, road to the high mountain lake Tso Moriri.

Tso Moriri, Tsomoriri, Tso Moriri, Tso Moriri - the most beautiful alpine lake in Indian Tibet, is located 215 km southeast of Leh at an altitude of 4595 m above sea level.
The maximum length of the lake is 19 km, the maximum width is 3 km, and the maximum depth is 40 m. It is the largest alpine lake in the trans-Himalayan region within India.
The water in the lake is slightly salty.
For tourists, Lake Tso Moriri is only available during the summer season.
Until 1959, local residents were engaged in the extraction of salt (tsokar, in the local Ladakh) from the lake.
On the shore of the lake is the Karzok Gompa Monastery, where we were on a holiday this summer, and around the monastery there is a small village of the same name.
In summer, the air temperature ranges from 0 ° to 30 ° C, and in winter from −10 to −40.
Changpa nomadic shepherds live here mainly.
It is in the winter Tibetan houses of our friends Changpa that we spend the night on our only night on Tso Moriri.

Why are we going to Tso Moriri in November?
Because Tso Moriri is simply a magical place for photographers: it is a mirror lake, reflecting, in the smallest details, copying reality.
Tso Moriri is a very, stunningly beautiful lake in the summer, and I really want to shoot rare photographs of the November frowning Tso Moriri for world photographers.

Tibetan nomad house Changpa.

Day 7, November 17: alpine lake Tso-Moriri - Leh. Altitude 4,800 m, distance of about 250 km.
Morning landscape photography on Lake Tso Moriri and we set off on the return trip to Leh.
If we are lucky with the weather, then we will definitely drop into the high-mountain valley of geysers and Lake Tso Kar - the places are very fantastic:

Return to Leh:
we relax in our luxurious hotel, clean feathers and equipment, view the captured photos.
Hotel in Leh.

Day 8, November 18: Old Leh, Leh Palace, Nyangmal Tsemo Gonpa, Soma Gonpa, Shanti Stupa. Height is 3 600 m.
This day is dedicated to independent walks along Old Lech and street photography.
In the morning we will go by car to the Namgyal Tsemo Monastery.

The monastery and fortress Namgyal Tsemo, the “red fortress”, was built in the 16th century by King Tashi Namgyal.
The monastery keeps a three-story statue of Buddha-Maitreya. The monastery is also famous for its collection of ancient manuscripts and frescoes.
The monastery belongs to the Gelugpa tradition.
Then we walk down to Old Leh, visiting the Royal Palace of Leh, Gompa Sama, Park Stup on the road.
Independent genre photography on the streets of Old Lech.
We will meet you at the magnificent white Stupa of the World - Shanti Stupa.

Hotel in Leh.

Day 9, November 19: Lamayuru Valley. Pass Fotu La. Moon Land. Altitude 3,000 m, distance about 300 km.
The final day of our Ladakh photo tour will be dedicated to photography in the high valley of Lamayuru.
Early in the morning we will go by car towards the Lamayuru Valley, numerous stops along the road for landscape photography.
We will visit the oldest Bonov Buddhist monastery in Ladakh, Lamayuru Gonpa.
Lamayuru (Jungdrun - SWASTIKA) - the most beautiful valley of Western Tibet, located in the valley of the upper Indus, 127 km. west of Leh.
Lamayuru - Valley of Mystery, Valley of Rebus, Tibetan Looking Glass:

The light here is constantly changing, the light is constantly floating, moving
and with it everything changes - colors, shades, valley pattern, sensations ...
The meanings do not change, they are simply elusive in this continuous fluidity of Space and Time.
Kaleidoscope Valley - take a step to the side and everything is different.
Look the other way, then you turn around - and you don’t know where you are.
I don’t understand how to describe this feeling in words - it’s very similar to when you go through the worlds - as in Amber.
Here, Time is felt in a special way - each step tangibly moves not only through Space, but also through Time: Time here also ceases to be a habitually unnoticed state.
No, there is a real feeling of movement within Time, through - very similar to that which arises when you walk along the road calmly and without purpose.

In the middle of the day we will climb the Fotu La pass (4006 m) and Lamayuru will open before us in full view.

On the way back we will visit and take pictures in the place Moon Land or - Moon Earth.

Return to Leh, fees on the road.
Hotel in Leh.

Day 10, November 20: Flight Leh - Delhi. Homecoming.
In the morning we leave for the airport and fly to Delhi.
And under us - incredibly colorful mountains of Ladakh swim.

Depending on the flight schedule, we spend time at the airport or go on an independent walk around Delhi (things can be left in the locker).
It is also possible to conduct a rich photo tour of Delhi with visits to the trash quarters, the laundress quarter, the rickshaw quarter, Hindu temples - accompanied by a local guide who speaks excellent Russian and has repeatedly accompanied our photo groups in Delhi.
Such a tour is possible by special arrangement with the group and for a fee.

And the mountains of Ladakh - will undoubtedly dream and dream for a very long time).