Matho Monastery, or Matho Gompa is a Buddhist

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 monastery located 26 kilometres southeast of Leh in Ladakh

Ladakh

Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...

, northern India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The village of Matho is located at the mouth of a deep gorge running out of the Zanskar Range and across the Indus. It is directly opposite Thikse

Thikse

Thikse Gompa or Thikse Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Yellow Hat sect, located on top of a hill, approximately 19 kilometres east of Leh in Ladakh, India...

 Monastery.

History

Founded in the 16th century by Lama Dugpa Dorje, it belongs to the Sakya

Sakya

The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...

 Order. It is noted for its four hundred year old thangka

Thangka

A "Thangka," also known as "Tangka", "Thanka" or "Tanka" is a Tibetan silk painting with embroidery, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, famous scene, or mandala of some sort. The thankga is not a flat creation like an oil painting or acrylic painting...

s and its Matho Nagrang Festival.

The gompa is the only one in Ladakh belonging to the Sakyapa and is said to be one of the few which is seeing an increase of monks in recent years.
(This picture is not Matho Gompa.)

Description

Most of the buildings are, apparently, rather dilapidated but there is a new assembly hall or du-khang which was built about the early 1970s and which has rather sober and plain paintings of the Lords of the Quarters on the verandah. There is a small chapel on the top story containing images of Sakya Pandita and other Sakya lamas. There is a 'museum' adjoining it with a number of very beautiful old thangkas, some of which are thought to have been brought from Tibet in the first half of the 16th century when the monastery was founded. Unfortunately, many of them are very worn. The masks and robes worn by the lamas in the annual dance festival may also be seen in the museum.

The festival of the oracles

The annual festival of the oracles takes place around the Buddhist new year, usually in the first half of March. Two lamas are chosen by lots every three years who purify themselves with months of fasting and meditation to make themselves suitable receptacles for a certain deity. When possessed they are said to be able to perform many astounding feats such as cutting themselves with knives and walking around the ramparts of the top storey blindfolded with no fear of falling down the precipice below. While in this trance state they answer questions about the prospects for Matho and Ladakh for the coming year as well as personal questions put to them by individuals. However, if skeptical questions are put to the oracle to test him, he is said to react "with a frenzied display of anger."