More hills & monasteries

The last step towards Gangtok was again demanding and longer than excepted. On the way i decided to take a little detour (hum.. 25 km extra) to visit Rumtek monastery, again perched on top of a hill. Rumtek is highly esteemed in Tibetan buddhism, for it is the siege of an important lama in exile : the 17th karmapa. The problem is that there are currently two candidates for this role...As a result, Rumtek has been the siege of their dispute... Monks supporting Trinley Thaye Dorje (the minority) were even thrown out by Indian security forces and the site is now guarded by the army. Each faction has its website, presented as the "official" one : https://www.karmapa.org for Thaye Dorje, https://kagyuoffice.org/karmapa/
for Ogyen Trinley Dorje.
In the meantime, senior monks are chanting and performing their Tibetan dances up there, while the younger ones are having fun watching them...

As usual, the rain started falling in the afternoon. Too tired after having gone down from Rumtek, I decided to abandon my bike & some of my luggage at a random shop below Gangtok. I ended the way by taxi, but by the time I could find and reach the hostel in the maze of streets, I arrived soaked and exhausted... As usual !Read more