Located 15km to the south of Leh on the Leh-Manali highway is the Shey
Palace. The 3 storey palace is perched on a hillock overlooking the
beautiful Shey village. 'Shey' loosely translated into Ladakhi means
mirror (or maybe reflection) and it is the reflection of the palace on
the still waters of the lake below which gave origins to its name.
Now on to a little bit of history.. Shey was the first capital of
Ladakh. The royal palace and shrine were built in the sixteenth century
AD by king Deledan Namgyal. Later the royal palace was shifted to Leh
due to its strategic position on the silk road. The Dukhang in the
shrine houses a 3 storey (7.5m) high statue of Sakyamuni the seated
position. The palace also has the largest victory stupa in Ladakh, the
top of which is made of pure gold.
Outside the palace building, you can keep climbing the steps to reach
the top of the hill. Scattered here are the remains of an ancient
fortress and you can get a spectacular view of the villages of stok and
spituk spread out below you.
Perhaps the biggest spectacle of Shey lies outside the palace. At
its bottom, towards the south you'll come across numerous chortens
numbering in the hundreds, maybe even in the thousands. The story
behind them goes something like this... it seems the king of Shey did
not believe in punishing the criminals in his kingdom by imprisonment.
Instead he would make the criminals build a certain number of chortens
and through this holy deed he believed that the criminal would absolve
himself of his sins. Interesting..
Getting there..
- From the Leh bus station, there are buses running every hour
towards Shey, Thiksey and beyond. You can catch any of these buses and
get down at the Shey palace.
- You also hire a taxi from the Leh market area to the Shey palace.
Although it would be better if you can negotiate a package deal for a
day to take you to all the monasteries around Leh.
- The third and better option of all the three is to go by your own
transportation. Bikes are easily available for rent in the Leh town.
The going rate is between 400 to 700Rs per day depending on the season
on the model of the bike.
