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[Wild NZ natives]
Squabbling and squawking, a gutteral gurgling and gargling, then a sudden trill, a riffle of pure melody. They're welcome.
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The immediately-distinguishing feature of our native Tui is the poi or ball of white feathers which develops towards maturity under their throats.
Tags: FZ200 Tui wild native gurgling trill riffle melody New Zealand Copyright photo PS © Those Thirsty Tuis rewa rewa crassifolium peteshep bird
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[Also in Explore.]
Morning light. [EXIF says 8.27am] As we headed west.
wikimapia Spitok monastery
More in visit to Spitok later. [From: peteshep/9520002181/in/set-72157636... onward.]
Perched on a hill close to the Leh airstrip and looking towards Leh town, Spitok responds well to its site. Unlike others there, I delighted in the architectural way its stepping whitewashed forms relate so well to the stepping of the Stok Range mountains beyond.
In "Little Tibet" (Ladakh), monasteries and fortresses became combined. Most of the fortress monasteries that are found in Ladakh date from the time of Sennge. As elsewhere in the Tibetan Cultural Region the great majority have undergone numerous reconstructions, but it is possible to detect the form they took when first built. Nearly all were constructed on isolated hills or crags or on rocky outcrops. The style is recognisably Tibetan and the majority were multistoreyed, with temples occupying the uppermost storeys. Openings are few and increase in size only in the upper-levels where they are provided with wooden balconies. The high, sloping walls are painted white externally. The massive bullk of the monastic temples, together with assembly and prayer rooms, combined with their carefully chosen locations still create the impression of powerful fortifications even though their active defences have been removed or lost. At the same time the siting is symbolically spiritual. Reputedly the earliest of Sengee's fortress monasteries was that of Spitok.
Though possibly first founded in the 11th C, it was built into a Gelukpa gompa in the 15th Century.
But to the visitor, the architectural exterior is a fascination with its interlocking, stepping spaces, and outlooks to the countryside. A path leads through a gateway lined with prayer-wheels, to the central courtyard of the gompa. Facing the courtyard is the main four-storey building of the monastery with traditional windows and balconies; a flight of steps lead to the dukhang, the main assembly hall. At one end of the yard is a new pagoda-style shrine to the recent venerable Bakula who was a member of India's parliament in the 1960s.
The name Spitok means "effective as example" in Tibetan and probably has its origin in the attempt by Rinchen Zampa, a 10th C scholar from Tibet, to establish a model community in the area that would be an example for the rest of Ladakh. Steps lead higher to the red-painted Gonkhang temple by the hilltop (right) with dramatic views -- at our time including verdant valleys, and the Indus River.
Spitok normally has in residence about 100 lamas; it controls the other Gelugpa gompas in and around Leh including Sankar and Stok. Damaged by heavy rain and snowfall in 1997-98, the monastery was extensively repaired by the government in 2000.
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Nyingmapa ..... Red Hats
Kagyupa ...........White Hats
Karmapa ..........Black Hats
Gelugpa ...........Yellow Hats
Tags: PS peteshep copyright photo Spitok monastery Leh Ladakh India Himalayas FZ200 July 6th 2013 morning lang=en&lat=34.127046&lon=77.525722&z=17&m=b&search=leh lamasery spituk Pethup Gompa
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wikimapia Leh Fort/gompa
From Shanti Stupa.
[Another Explore]
Leh is Ladakh's significant town; and wonderfully perched on mountain pinnacle above it is this historic combined monastery and fortress -- this shot across the valley from the Shanti Stupa.
Called Namgyal Tsemo.
Architectural exclamation at its highest!
The red Maitreya temple, Tsemo Gompa, festooned with prayer-flags, is the structure as you ascend to the ridge top. Just above the Tsemo Gompa stands the Gongkhang, shrine of protector of deities, which was erected by King Tashi Namgyal in the mid 16th C. At the very top of the ridge, reached by scrambling up the shear slope, are the remains of the 16th C palace and fort of King Namgyal, Leh's first royal residence. Like all Ladakh capitals, Leh had its first fortresses at the highest elevations, with later, more confident kings choosing to build palaces lower down. Here, one of the towers still retains an overhanging wooden balcony. This fort is sometimes called the Victory Fort.
(Historians think there may have even been a fortress dating back to the 5th century.)
2024;
Winning shot in international photography awards on theme of "Long Distance":
Judged by Collectivo narval in Chile.
Tags: PS peteshep copyright photo Leh Ladakh India Namgyal Tsemo monastery-Victory fort West side steps FZ200 July 4th 2013 mountain-perched Himalayas lang=en&lat=34.167500&lon=77.589998&z=14&m=b&search=leh castle gompa
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'nother old mouldy slide, about 1970.
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BUT see my recent Set/album including much better Portofino etc:
peteshep/albums/72157649916657087
Portofino harbour.
Wonderful response to landform and sea-edge; matching earth-ochre colours of Liguria.
Tags: PS peteshep old slide circa 1970 Portofino Italy earth-ochres sea-edge
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One of my wild native tuis looking for liquid lunch.
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The characteristic white throat feathers are called a poi (maori for ball).
On native miro (Prumnopitys ferrugineus) -- at my place.
www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/tui/
Tags: PS peteshep copyright photo tui miro North-shore Auckland liquid lunch fz200 flickr's Explore New Zealand native bird
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