Moody Chemrey, a photo from Jammu and Kashmir, North

Photographer's Note

Clinging like a swallow's nest to the sides of a shay conical hill, the magnificent Gompa of Chemrey sees very few visitors because of its location - tucked up the side valley that runs from below Hemis, to the Chang-la pass into Pangong. If one isn't having one's own vehicle, then be prepared to do some walking to get there. It takes around fifty minutes to follow the dirt track down to the river and up to the monastery after the Leh -Thak Thok bus drops one off beside the main road.

Chemrey Monastery or Chemrey Gompa is a 1664 Buddhist monastery, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Leh, Ladakh, northern India. This monastery of the Drugpa (Red Hat) sect or monastic order in located in eastern Ladakh. It dates back to the 17th century. Today, the Ladakh Chemrey Gompa houses around 20 monks of the diminishing Drugpa community, along with their young novices.

Samsara is a 2001 independent Indian/Italian/French/German film which tells the story of a Buddhist monk's quest to find Enlightenment was shot near Chemrey.

As dark clouds loomed, I took as series of pictures framing the Monastery with the stupas on the right and the mani stones on the left (You can see words 'Om Mani Padme Hum' etched on the stones). Soon it started to snow...

pierrefonds, danos, PaulVDV, jjcordier, macjake, Kielia, stego, COSTANTINO, papagolf21, Graal, ChrisJ, adores, Didi, fritzi007 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

holmertz (103520) 2014-09-24 3:19

Hello Angshuman,
Apart from the brown and grey tones there are very few other colours seen here. It's a fascinatingly monotonous scenery, however made iively and interesting by the cubistic buildings and the stupas and mani stones. I wonder how the atmosphere would have changed on a sunny day. To my mind the dark clouds suit this view perfectly.
KInd regards,
Gert

pierrefonds (115408) 2014-09-24 4:31

Hi Angshuman,

The stupas are helping to frame the scene. The point of view is showing the details of the houses and of the monastery. The cloudy sky is giving a good contrast to the colors. Have a nice dya.

Pierre

HimalAnda (10671) 2014-09-24 4:34

Hello Angshuman,

The composition of this picture is very good. The stupas in the foreground are aligned to make a diagonal line which drives the eye toward the village and the monastery.
Moreover, the dark grey sky gives a real mood to the picture.

St廧hane

lousat (139906) 2014-09-24 5:02

H Angshu,a spectacular capture of this big monsatery,great choice of point of view to show us a complete view on the hill,magnificent work in PP with this soft HDR,i like it! Have a nice day and thanks,Luciano

Sergiom (117241) 2014-09-24 5:18

Bonjour Angshuman,

Quelle belle composition. Le point de vue bien choisi et la contre plong嶪 donne beaucoup de profondeur et d'ampleur � l'image tr鋊 inhabituelle. Le ciel tr鋊 gris ajoute une touche dramatique � l'ensemble.

Amicalement

Serge

Gerrit (62042) 2014-09-24 7:08

Hello Angshuman,
a fascinating place and beautiful setting.
Great and well balanced composition.
regards, Gerrit

danos (110407) 2014-09-24 8:29

Hi Angshu,
a really fascinating place with Chemrey Monastery to be founded on the cliff of the backdrop hill.The moody sky enhance the beauty of the place with the stupas to are placed perfect in the frame.Informative your note as ever.

Regards,Danos

PaulVDV (63432) 2014-09-24 12:45

Hello Angshu,
Amazing how people (monks in this case) have built a life in such an barren world.
Excellent composition.
Beautiful inclusion of the inscriptions on the rocks on the foreground.
Best regards, Paul

jjcordier (79299) 2014-09-24 12:59

Angshuman
Un 彋onnant endroit que tu as superbement photographi�, exploitant au mieux la splendide lumi鋨e du moment.
Amicalement
JJ

macjake (98544) 2014-09-24 13:29

Hi Angshu
yes!!!!!!
We want to go here!

We are planning to visit Leh...i read your note, but i still wonder how easy or hard it is to find this Monastery?

are there local private taxi drivers that we could hire to take us here from Leh??? I know many tourists hire private taxi drivers to take them around.

looking at your shot, i want to see this!!!

wicked place, so much history, so much mystery too.
the photo itself may be a bit over contrasted but to be honest, i don't really care. The subject is just so amazing by itself in any condition.

wonderful post! This makes me want to travel to Leh right now.
beauty
cheers
craig

Also...do you recommend flying to Leh from Delhi? or taking a taxi? bus?
If we fly, are we going to miss the natural mountain beauty? flying sounds good because it cuts down on travel time...what do you think?

Kielia (24077) 2014-09-25 3:02

Hello Angshuman,
a very fascinating image with a fantastic mood - and a great impression of the monastery, very thoroughly composed with an excellent management of the light. The dramatic sky makes the image very attractive. My compliments also for the notes!
Warm regards
Harriet

stego (24132) 2014-09-25 7:43

Hi Angshu,

A dreamy place, seen from a fantastic POV with an amazing and dramatic light. I don't know what to say, it is a really great photo!

TFS, regards, Jos�.

COSTANTINO (117652) 2014-09-25 23:06

Hello dear friend
a shot different from the usuals with dark
clouds and grey sky which suit perfectly
to this view the cubistic buildings
have their personal architectural beauty
and your notes are very useful and interesting
for me the dark sky gives a moody
atmosphere to this photo
regards
Costantino

papagolf21 (152607) 2014-09-25 23:48

Bonjour, cher ami Angshu,
C'est toujours avec grand plaisir de d嶰ouvrir vos compositions qui apprennent beaucoup sur ces lieux 彋onnants.
Tr鋊 bonne journ嶪.
Amiti廥.
Philippe

Nicou (193814) 2014-09-26 2:46

Hello

quel rendu et vue superbe quel village sur cette colline superbe captage et image avec ces deux tours quelle architecture et pr廥entation parfaite splendide vue.
Bravo et amiti�
Nicou

sayeed_rahman (6461) 2014-09-27 10:39

Lovely lead into the gompa, now i can relate to this structure from ones in morocco. They are called "Kasbahs". The concept is the same, the design is different. Man has evolved quite similarity, even at the remote corner, at the edge of africa, they decided to build the same things on mountain tops.

intriguing light given the overcast sky.

shreya2000 (2815) 2014-09-27 22:29

Dear Dada,

Very nice composed picture showing the stupas and the Bodhist buildings. I like the natural colour the the buildings which are similar to the colour of the hills. The slokas written in the boulders are also interesting.

The cloud is very interesting in this pic which are creating some different view on the photo.
regards,
joginder

Graal (103040) 2014-09-28 9:40

Hello Angshuman,
interesting place and view. Amazing monastery between the mountains. I like the composition, contrast and post processing. Good presentation.
Have a nice evening.
Aleksander

Fis2 (171789) 2014-09-29 1:25

Witaj Angshu!
Fantastic view,
amazing architecture!
Wonderful place.
I love it.
Have a nice afternoon
Krzysztof

pajaran (116915) 2014-09-29 5:24

Dobar dan, popodne.
Lep pogled na arhitekturu, dobar tekst o manastiru sa istorijom i opisom ...
Dobar trenutak snimka,kontrast i perspektiva, lepo pokazana arhitektura i trenutak sa oblakom koji donosi kisu.
Dobar kompozicija, lepo uhvacen trenutak, lepe boje.
Lepo popodne i sve najbolje u novoj nedelji koja je pocela, srecno.
Paja.

Good afternoon, this afternoon.
Nice view of the architecture, a good article on the monastery with a history and description of ...
Good time recording, contrast and perspective, beautiful architecture and shown the moment the cloud that brings rain.
Good composition, well captured the moment, pretty colors.
Nice afternoon and all the best in the new week that started, good luck.
Paja.

abmdsudi (95869) 2014-09-29 21:10

Namaste Angshu
A fine shot definitely makes us to wander around to what looks like ruined buildings lurking in the background but the gompas in the fg rest the eyes nicely. The darker sky and the whole atmosphere add a bit of surreal and mysterious feel and indeed a strong subject full of content made special by this treatment, although imho you have gone slightly overboard with the post processing. Great capture, tfs
Best regards

emka (158672) 2014-10-02 23:36

Hi again,
Do I see the words Om Mani Padme Hum? lol Fascinating view and I love the places seeing few tourists. Superb composition with the small houses clinging to the hills and the stupas. Strange enough, I saw a few stupas in Russia.
I saw this movie Samsara (in youTube). Very interesting.
WArm regrads MAlgo

ChrisJ (172372) 2014-10-09 15:54

Hi Angshuman,

Nice overlapping and repetition of the 2 fg stupa structures. The ornate colorful carvings add interest to them. The pyramid stacked buildings on the bg hill are unusual. Good sharpness and well framed and composed. Good contrasted lighting despite the cloudy day. Tfs!

adores (46979) 2014-10-16 13:32

Hi Angshuman!
I never get tired of the photos of this region. The composition is great with all those elements so well framed. I specially like the light and the dark sky. I guess I rarely see photos of these mani stones and they seem really interesting.

adidas5nb (5743) 2014-11-08 22:15

wow.. and its a big big wow...
one day i will go there..one day.
its a stunner of a shot.love the pov, the pp and the light.
again
WOW...
regards
dwaipayan

Didi (61589) 2014-11-20 9:49

Salam Angshu
Awesome picture with an hyper dramatic lights
Very good contrasts in this view
Well done
Kind regards

federico (6109) 2015-01-07 17:05

Hello
very well contrasted and inspiring photo, the dark sky adds something more to your composition, a place I wish to visit one day
best regards
Fred

fritzi007 (14698) 2015-02-24 7:06

Hallo Angshuman,
great photo and presentation, excellent image sharpness and comments, congratulations!

Best regards and have a nice day
Wolfgang

Photo Information

Copyright: Angshuman Chatterjee (Angshu) (56760)
Genre: 地方
Medium: 彩色
Date Taken: 2011-06-10
Categories: 自然，建築
Camera: Canon 400D (Digital Rebel XTi), Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 DI II VC LD, RAW, Marumi 72mm PL-CIR
Exposure：f/11, 1/80 seconds
More Photo Info: view
Photo Version：Original Version
Travelogue：Ladakh - "The Broken Moon"
Date Submitted: 2014-09-24 2:09
Favorites：1 [view]