Spiti Valley & Lahaul Valley: Himachal

There is hardly any place in a populous country like India where fewer people live. And it is one of the few remote places, in Spiti Valley & Lahaul Valley :Himachal.

This cold desert valley has 10 times more area than Delhi and the population is even less than 0.1% of Delhi’s population. When it’s such a remote location, so I thought that why crowd it by talking with group let’s go solo.

You will come to Spiti Valley & Lahaul Valley by taking a bus from Manali to Kaza that runs from morning to evening. And if you do take this journey, it will be the most scenic bus journey you will ever take. The bus will drop you at Kaza which is the headquarters of Spiti Valley. And it is also the largest city here. The Bhoti language spoken in Spiti  is a variant of the Tibetan language. And people here do not say Hello or Namaste, here these people Julley! He speaks

Key Monastery

To know a little more about Spiti Valley, I reached the biggest monastery “Key Monastery”, most of the monasteries you will find are located in remote areas away from villages, and cities. A monk who studies in a monastery and practices meditation has an idea of what environment will be based for him, according to him, dechu true remote place. Which are away from crowded and noisy areas, if you practice in that place then you can meditate in peace. Without any interference, your sadhana will be successful.

The main monastery is situated at an altitude of 13000 feet and is actually a town in itself. It has schools, temple halls, prayer halls, hostels, big kitchens, restaurants, playgrounds, and many more. You will see sadhus of all ages in the monastery, from children to old people. And the best way to experience the monastery is to attend the lunchtime prayer. At 12 noon all the monks assemble for lunch in the prayer hall. And if you also go here, you will also be served better tea. Which is really very tasty. And before having lunch they do puja and chant. After lunch, all the kids in the hall wash their plates and bowls there themselves. And some of these kids are only 5 years old.

In the evening all the monk’s children go to play and it can be anything like cricket football anything.
All you need is admission to join the Math and the rest of the things like food and clothes, room and pocket money, everything is taken care of by the Math. Another boy from every family comes here to become a monk,

Monk

And on the other side adult Monk’s do spiritual practice. That too in a specially designed cave for meditation. You can see different caves here. If someone wants to do meditation separately, he is given a separate cave and he can use it. And there is a special window and apart from that the cave is completely dark.

You get only one window to focus on. So you focus well on that window because there is nothing to see except that window. That light makes you feel totally focused. And whenever you meditate there you are well-balanced. So it gives you stability and it tells you how to be focused and stable. You must have heard about single-pointed meditation and analytical meditation. So the mainstay here is one-sided meditation. In Buddhism people usually focus on the Buddha statue, focusing on only one thing, your focus should be on one thing.

Meditation 

We got to learn a lot about meditation. But I asked a monk why meditation is necessary.
Monk said – “We are taking care of our physical health. You feed your body daily in the morning, afternoon, and evening, sometimes with coffee, sometimes with dry fruits. When was the last time you fed your brain? When did you tell your mind that do this, don’t do that, this is good? We never tell ourselves that. Depends on what comes to your mind. We do what it says. So we are in control of it. And we need to take control of it. You need to control your mind. When your mind is under your control then your whole physical body will be under your control.”

Monk’s in Spiti 

Why choose to stay away from home and that too such a simple life? It is very difficult for a monk. But they can leave the monastery whenever they want.

There are 350 monks all around, and many of them have left, if they are counted, about 70 to 80 monks have left. And recently 2-3 monks had left the monastery. These monks have been living in the monastery since childhood, whatever they are today is because of this monastery. And their parents have taken care of the monks only for 6 to7 years. After this, the monastery accompanies the monk throughout his life.

Learned many new things by talking to the monk. About the main monastery, about the monks, and maybe even about life. That’s the thing about travel, it gives you new experiences. It lets you meet new people, everywhere, every time. You go on learning something new. And there are more such places in Spiti Valley, there are more true stories that I want to share with you. So see you on the next trip.

Lahaul Valley

This very beautiful valley is just 2 hours away from Manali, Which remains hidden between Spiti Valley and Ladakh. People go to Spiti Valley, go to Ladakh but Lahaul Valley is left out of them, they do not come to visit Lahaul. But today we are going to experience each and every place of Lahaul Valley. And first of all we will go to Sissu.

Sissu 

Sissu is the nearest village from Manali to Lahaul. Its altitude is about 10000 feet. And on cold days the temperature here goes below -20 degrees Celsius. And because of such harsh weather only about 100 to 200 people live here. Coming here, the biggest thing you will see is a lake which looks like a big mirror. The name of this lake is Sissu Lake. It shows the pure reflection of the beautiful valley.

Just in front of the article is a Sissu waterfall, one-hour trekking has to be done for the waterfall. This waterfall was half frozen when I went there. And it gets completely frozen on cold days. If you come to here, you must make a stone tower, this feeling is very lovely. A beautiful waterfall at a place surrounded by mountains on all sides. And as soon as the sunset here, the temperature starts falling. And it starts getting colder.

Keylong

Keylong is the biggest city in Lahaul. located along the Bhaga River is the most densely populated town of Lahaul. Despite being the headquarters and most densely populated town of Lahaul, life here is slow and peaceful. These places give you time to pause and reflect on life. Here in the valley, the language of the people changes every 5 to 6 kilometres. The language of Sipiti Valley is Bhoti and the language of Lahaul here is Lahauli. Famous author Rudyard Kipling also visited Keylong, and he said, “Surely the Gods live here, this is no place for men”. and he had told the truth because only God resides here.

Coolest place Near In Keylong is Jispa. it’s located 20 km away from Keylong. In Jispa villages the spread of the Bhaga  River increases considerably. Which becomes an ideal location for camping. And we also set up our camp here, and nothing can be better than camping on this view.

Yordong Gompa

It is located above the keylong valley, Yordong Gompa. Which is built in the middle of a rock and the location of this monastery makes it so special.

Rangcha Peak

Wherever you are in Keylong, you will definitely see this Rangcha Peak. And this pick looks even more beautiful from near, its altitude is about 15000 feet.

Darcha

Darcha comes a little further from Jispa. the last northern permanent settlement of Himachal on the Manali-Leh highway. Beyond this, you will find only camps or tents till Ladakh. and this beautiful journey of our Lahaul ends in Darcha itself.

In this blog “Spiti Valley & Lahaul Valley”, I have tried to visit all the places. So that you do not have any problem in planning your trip here.

There are so many places that I wish I could include in this blog. So maybe I will have to make a part 2. Let me know where your favourite place in Spiti Valley & Lahaul Valley is.

I wish everyone to explore this beautiful world and learn the things to make our world a better place to live. With this, if you enjoyed reading this blog, do comment and share it with your friends and family and keep following Nomad Rahgir..