March 11th, 2007 
Sheila Simkin There were exactly two sights in Kaza to visit: Kibber Village and Ki Monastery
Kibber, at 13,500′, is an extremely high isolated village reachable by road. Twenty years ago, there was no road and no interest in seeing it but today tourists (including us) drive up just to say they have visited a high, inhabited village. Go figure. Because it is a tribal village, the Government gives them lots of financial support and jobs. There was nothing of interest for us…just a lot of runny-nosed children and a few other curious tourists. Don’t bother.
But Ki Monastery, 13,000′, was a different story. A beautiful old monastery (the oldest and biggest in Spiti) built into the rock…View image…by the famous Tibetan Translator, Ringchen Zynpo. …View image…There are about 40 monks living there right now and we visited the two important rooms. The Zimshung, where the Dalai Lama holds prayers when he visits for two important festivals a year, and the Kuntung…a room with a magnificant silver stupa inlaid with turquoise and coral. No photos were allowed from inside the room but I got a partial shot from outside the room.
Ki, isolated on its hill, was an impressive sight. Outside, one of the windows had yellow and orange paint around it to deliniate where the Dalai Lama stays when he visits. We listened to the monks chanting and watched a few monks creating butter lamps for their daily devotions. This was the first time we had ever seen that done.
July, August and September is the time to visit Spiti. Otherwise, the roads can become too dangerous…flooding and snow. Looking down from Ki on the green fields, it was difficult to believe that anything can grow or survive in the Spiti Valley. A patch of green…acres of desert…
More bumpy road to Tabo at 10,800′, to find out that we’ve been “downgraded” to the Trojan Guest House because Banjara doesn’t have room for us. Why? Read tomorrow and find out…
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