Many moons ago I was on a sortie with a pilot popularly known as Mad Mike in aviation circles. But before that a disclaimer. Any resemblance with any aircrew you may have known is incidental and purely coincidental.To further distance any illusion as to any resemblance with any other Mad Mike, our Mike in question had a penchant for whistling tunelessely on long flights, preferred to fly by the seat of his pants and was one of the few old timer aviators who owned two motorbikes-- one for formal occasions and one for normal day to day functioning.
To give a brief preamble, 240 kms from Srinagar and about 40 km from Kargil along the Wakha river valley and adjacent to the Kargil- Leh highway is located the Shargol Monastery. As the crow flies, it is 10 km from Mulbekh, a small village in Kargil District (now a part of the Union Territory of Ladakh). The monastery, neatly white-washed and closely stacked, is dug into the sheer face of a vertical cliff that rises high above the valley.  |
| SHARGOL MONASTERY PIC TAKEN BY ME |
So one fine day as we refueled at Kargil enroute to Leh, we decided to bend our flight plan a little and brush past Shargol village (Lat 34.4000 Long 76.3000). One of the reasons I suspect was that Mad Mike had been told by reliable sources that there also existed a small village beside this monastery, we may just spot a few belles (no pun intended). Also, having heard so much about a place which resembled the lunar landscape (general area 'moon rocks'), this slight deviation from the approved route was given no second thought.
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| CLOSE UP NOT VERY CLEAR TURBULENCE AND VIBRATIONS |
The cave monastery is to be seen to be believed. And as we hovered near it, the structure was visible like a white speck against a vertically rising hill. It did look like a 'colony of beehives hanging from the Cliff side', amazingly suspended at the centre of a mountain. And only the front facade of the monastery is visible. The monastery belongs to the Gelukpa order and as per local lore, the monastery shelters only two Buddhist monks.
And yes, there is a tiny Buddhist nunnery below the main structure.
This part of the operation done (no monks no bells ), we headed for the shimmering 'moon rocks' (all pics taken by me) , the beauty of this desolate landscape is to be seen to be believed. And Chandrayan was many years later.
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| THE 'MOON ROCKS' |
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