INDIA

Kye Gompa Monastery

Kye Gompa is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Gelugpa sect located on top of a hill at an altitude of 4,166 meters above sea level, close to the Spiti River, in the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh in India. It is located about 12 km north of Kaza and 210 km from Manli by road.

It is the largest monastery of the Spiti Valley and a religious training centre for lamas. The monastery is dedicated to Lochen Tulku, the 24th reincarnation of the great translator Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo.  

The monastery contains a collection of ancient murals, books and Buddha images. The building consists of three floors with the first one mainly underground and used for storage. One room, called the Tangyur, is richly painted with murals. The ground floor houses the beautifully decorated Assembly Hall and cells for many monks.

The monastery of Kye accommodates nearly 250 monks, who reside within the sacred walls throughout the year. Some monks attend South Indian monasteries during winters, while the rest of them stay inside the monastery walls. These monasteries have their regular heads who are the reincarnations of Guru Rinpoche. The current head of Kye Monastery is from Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh.

The best time to visit this extraordinary monastery and its surrounding areas is from mid-June until mid-September. We would like to suggest the following itinerary:

Day 01: Arrival in Chandigarh

Day 02: Chandigarh – Shimla (2100m a.s.l / 120 km / 03.5 hrs).

Day 03: Shimla – Narkanda – Hatu (3400m a.s.l) – Thandedhar (2200m a.s.l / 100 km / 03-04 hrs)

Day 04: Thanedhar – Sangla (2700m a.s.l / 140 km / 06 hrs)

Day 05: Sangla – Raksham – Chitkul (3400m a.s.l) – Sangla (04 hrs)

Day 06: Sangla – Peo – Kalpa – Nako (3600m a.s.l / 140 km / 05 hrs)

Day 07: Nako – Tabo (3300m a.s.l) – Kaza (3800m a.s.l / 120 km / 3 – 4 hrs)

Day 08: Kaza (3800m a.s.l)

Day 09: Kaza – Manali (2100m a.s.l / 200 km / 8-9 hrs)

Day 10: Manali

Day 11: Manali – Kullu drive than flight to Delhi