I climb out the window of our simple room and go to perch on the ledge overlooking the courtyard of the monastery in Lamayuru. We are in luck, completely by chance the monastery festival is going on while we are in Ladakh. The drums, cymbals and horns (a few so large it takes two young monks to carry them out) play a background of music throughout the day as 30 monks in colorful, shiny, patchwork over robes each wearing a mask of a protective deity dance. It is a simple dance around a circle, including spins, hops, arm raises and touching the ground in an unpredictable pattern. It is mesmerizing in color and the unchanging faces of the painted masks. As the horns lead the way back inside I find my attention captured again by the turns that flare the robes and the occasional mask which seems to be looking directly at me, two stories above the performance area. Truly a once in a lifetime experience.
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