Spiti Pilgrimage
20th August - 5th September 2006

Itinerary
Day 1 Arrive Delhi. Meet & transfer to hotel.

Day 2 After breakfast drive to Chandigarh - 260 km. Overnight hotel.

Day 3 Drive to Rewalsar - 240 km. O/N hotel.

Day 4 Rewalsar. Sightseeing. O/N hotel.

Day 5 Drive to Manikaran - 119 km. O/N hotel

Day 6 AM sightseeing. PM drive to Manali - 85 km. O/N hotel.

Day 7 Manali. Visit family / shopping. O/N hotel.

Day 8 Drive Manali - Chhatru (3360 mts) - 84 km. over Rohtang Pass (3980 mts). O/N in Mobile Camp.

Day 9 Drive Chhatru - Beyond Kunzom Pass over Kunzum pass (4551 mts). From Kumzom pass we will drive and walk upto Chandratal Lake (4270 mts) where we will enjoy the beauty of the Lake and can also meditate. The Lake is 2 to 3 hrs from the top. O/N mobile camp.

Day 10 Drive Beyond Kunzom Pass - Kaza (3600 mts). Enroute visit Losar Monastery (4079 mts). O/N mobile camp.

Day 11 Kaza. Visit Kei Monastery and Kibber village (4205 mts). O/N mobile camp.

Day 12 Drive Kaza - Dankar (3890 mts) - 40 km. PM visit Dankar Monastery. O/N mobile Cmp.

Day 13 Dankar. F/D visit Tabo Monastery (3050 mts) - 25Km and if time permits visit Pin Valley.

Day 14 Drive Dankar - Manali - 226 km. O/N hotel.

Day 15 Manali. Day at leisure. Overnight drive to Delhi by AC Coach. O/N hotel.

Day 16 Reach Delhi late in the morning. PM at leisure. O/N hotel.

Day 17 Late night transfer to IGI Airport.

Download a printable brochure here (48kb PDF document)

Buddhism is the dominant religion in Spiti but is a bit different from other areas as they sacrifice goats and sheeps to the demons who they think live on the trees, rocks and hill tops. All big monasteries fall under the yellow hat sect unlike Lahoul where red hat sect is dominant. The main dilect is Boti but some people speak Busheri, Ladakhi and even Nepali and Hindi is understood and spoken generally. There are about 30 monasteries spread over Spiti's rugged terrain and the main monasteries in Spiti are at Losar, Tabo, Dankar, Kei etc. Kibber is supposed to be the highest permanently inhabitat village in Asia and is connected by a motorable road which is about 18 km from Kaza.

Tabo Monastery is the seat of Buddhist learning and is regarded as the next in significance to the Tholing monastery in Tibet. The monastery was established about more than 1000 years ago and was a part western Tibet School that originally designed different Mandalas in the form of statues hanging on the walls of monasteries.

Dankar Monastery was founded in the 6th Century, though not well preserved, still have some magnificient original Thankas tucked away in the dark.

Kei Monastery, about 8 kms from Kaza is at an elevation of 3969 mts. And was founded in around the 14th Century. The monastery consists of large irregular heaps of low ceiling rooms and narrow corridors, interconnected by dark passages and tortuous staircases built on what must have been a crater of an extinct volcano. This is one of the biggest and oldest monasteries belonging to the Gelukpa sect in Spiti.

Chandratal Lake: Chandratal means the Lake of Moon. This Lake of exquisite beauty is set on a large meadow of edelweiss between a lower ridge and the main Kunzom range with an outlet into the Chandra river. A beautiful view of the Samudra Tapoo Glacier and of Mulkila range is obtainable from here.

REWALSAR
Rewalsar is equally sacred to Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. It was from this place that Guru Padmasambhava, a zealous teacher and Buddhist missionary left for Tibet to preach his new doctrine of Buddhism. There are three shrines around the lake, a Buddhist monastery where elaborate rituals are performed, a Sikh Gurudwara and a Hindu Temple.

MANALI
Manali lies in the north of Kullu at a distance of 40 km from Kullu amidst pinewood with high mountains towering above it. It is situated at an altitude of 1829 mts. The main tourist interest places in and around Manali are Vashist, Hadimba Temple, the Tibetan monastery, Old Manali, Roerich Art Gallery at Naggar etc.

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Kalimpong,
Darjeeling,
Sikkim
April 2006

Zanskar
July 2006

Spiti
August 2006

Bhutan
October 2006