Hemis Gompa
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Hemis Gompa is a two-day festival and depicts a dance-homage to the birth anniversary of
Guru Padmasambhava - known also as Guru Rimpoche, the founder of Tantric Buddhism and main saint who established Buddhism in Tibet. Hemis Gompa, also known as Tse Shoe ,is the name of the occasion that is celebrated at various places every year.
The Hemis Gompa was founded 350 years ago and is one of the wealthiest monasteries in Ladakh. Hemis belongs to the Kagupa Brugpa sect of Buddhism, the sect dominant in Bhutan. The monastery is situated in the South of Leh, on the south bank of the Indus River.
The Hemis monastic complex is located in the state of Jammu and Kashmir within the Ladakh region of the Western Himalayas, at an altitude of 12,000 feet making it one of the highest settlements of the world.
A main attraction of the Hemis Festival is the highly choreographed
Cham dances. Sacred masked dances, performed by resident lamas of Hemis Monastery, are a re-enactment of the magical feats of Padmasambhava, in his services to the cause of Buddhism in his eight different manifestations. The dances are accompanied by
discordant sounds of brass trumpets that are three meters (10 feet) long. The lamas (monks) get transformed into demons and gods. The festival is the largest and best of the Tibetan Buddhist gompa festivals in Ladakh. The lamas themselves offer contradictory
explanations as to the meanings of the dances.
More About Hemis Gompa
The festival of Hemis Gompa brings families of Ladakhis close together as they begin arriving from all over the valley. Their ornate festival clothing reveals a Tibetan, rather than Indian, heritage.The Gompa is a unique example of
a monastic complex of this period which manifests in its structure the geomantic principles which underlie religious constructions of this type. In addition there are also examples of construction techniques and details which are not found elsewhere.