Home > Notebook > Skeletons Dancing at Spitok

In the time of Ladakh Festival there are Chams (ritual ceremonies) at Spitok gompa. The road there winds between yellow walls with razor wires of military installations. Then by the airport, passing the sign with a picture of a duck that says Brahmin Duck. And on the hill at end of a runway is the gompa.

Monks dress up in costumes and dance in the courtyard to the sounds of trumpets and drums, sabres whiz through the air. The head lama is wearing sunglasses and yellow punker's wig. And all of this is a part of Ladakh Festival and in between the rituals you hear woman's voice announcing evening's polo match, promoting the handicraft exhibition and Camel Safaris at Nubra's sand dunes. (Nubra is the valley over the Khardung La.)

Few pictures