Ki monastery – Spiti Valley

The Ki Monastery is one of the most breathtaking landmarks in the Spiti Valley. This traditional Gelukpov monastery with its arrangement on a rocky hill probably has its roots in the 11th century. Below it is the village of Ki, which, during the warm months, has greenish carpets of fertile fields around it.

15 villages fall under Ki monastery. Farming is the traditional livelihood of local residents. The parents of almost every little local nun are poor farmers. At around the age of five, little boys are enrolled in the monastery school, where over 120 boys study. They have two tutors and two assistants who help them wash and look after the young students in the monastery hostel. Since 2015, monks can also study Buddhist philosophy in the monastery and no longer go to study in the south of India. However, the spatial capacities of the monastery are no longer sufficient.

Life in the monastery is very simple and very rough. All the monks stay here in the mountains even through the winter season, which lasts 7 months. The boys usually have winter holidays, which they spend with their families. Senior monks stay in the monastery in their dwellings called tašak. He heats in tin pebbles with dried animal dung and a little wood. The diet is relatively monotonous, lentils with rice, a little “sabji” vegetables and local fruit in the summer, a little meat in the winter. Salted tea with tsampa is traditionally served at the morning “pujas”.

For the last two years, there is also a signal in the valley and we can communicate more easily with the monastery office. A young, skilled monk, who is one of the oldest supported students in the framework of Adoption ProTibet, is now helping us with the administration! We go to the area every summer to visit the supported boys, hand them letters and take current portraits. In recent years, we have also focused attention on health care and prevention, equipment, medicines and medical examinations, as the nearest hospital is 200 km away and the area is impassable in winter.

With its atmosphere, the Ki Monastery takes the visitor far into the medieval past. The local monastery kitchen is littered with black soot, the monks eat lunch on the monastery roofs in the summer and everything is very simple yet noble. We have been operating in the monastery since 2008 and we support and improve the conditions of little boys in a non-invasive way.

Ki Monastery houses a collection of rare Buddhist manuscripts, Buddha statues and wall paintings. The highest superior of the monastery is His Eminence Lochen Tulku Rinpoche. The walls of the monastery are covered with paintings and frescoes, they are examples of monastic architecture of the 14th century. The monastery was damaged by an earthquake in 1975, but was repaired with the help of the Indian government.