Himachal Diaries: Part Eight

Day Six (06.07.2024): Road trip from Nako to Tabo via Gue

Good morning from Nako! I woke up at 7am and had breakfast at 8:15am alongwith Sunil and Smita Kulkarni. 

Post that luggage was loaded in the cars and we drove towards the helipad point, the very place where the above group photo was clicked by Hrishikesh. It was quite chilling cold. Then we drove ahead to Gue village. It's offbeat village famous for its mummified monk. 

We saw the first glimpse of the monastery at 11am and reached there driving through the narrow lanes of the base village.

Gue Monastery 

Perched at an altitude of 14600ft above sea level, the Gue monastery is known for its beautiful artifacts and the mummy.  It is a naturally preserved mummy of a Buddhist monk named Sangha Tenzin, who is believed to have died in the 15th century. He is believed to have practiced a form of self-mummification, a process by which monks starve themselves to death while in a seated meditation position. The goal of this practice is to achieve enlightenment and to leave behind a physical reminder of their spiritual journey. The Gue Mummy is considered to be a sacred relic by the local people, who believe that it has healing power. The mummy is seated in a temple in a glass box inside a small room, with his mouth open, his teeth and hair intact, and hollow eyes. 

This two-storey monastery is adorned with Buddhist sculptures, vibrant murals, and thangas. The ground floor has big prayer hall. 

We had to climb through the zigzag cement open staircase to reach the first floor. 

The second floor was restricted to monks only. Done with admiring the monastery and the landscape till noon, we had tea break and washroom break. We drove ahead to Tabo and reached Tow Dhey hotel at 1:30pm and had lunch. 

My room number was 222. We were given time to relax till 4pm. Then we left the hotel to visit Tabo monastery. More on this in next post.