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Hemis Festival

The Hemis Gompa was founded 350 years ago and is one of the wealthiest monasteries in Ladakh. Hemis belongs to the Kagupa Brugpa sect of Buddhism, the sect dominant in Bhutan. The monastery is situated in the South of Leh, on the south bank of the Indus River.

Tse Shoe is the name of the occasion that is celebrated at various places every year as the birthday of Padamsambhava- known also as Guru Rimpoche, the founder of Tantric Buddhism and main saint who established Buddhism in Tibet. The Monastery celebrates this event in the form of a 2-day festival. This 200 year-old tradition was introduced by a member of Ladakh's ruling family who was reincarnated in the 18th century as the monastery's Head Lama, "Sras Rimpoche."

A main attraction of the Hemis Festival is the highly choreographed Cham dances. Sacred masked dances, performed by resident lamas of Hemis Monastery, are a re-enactment of the magical feats of Padmasambhava, in his services to the cause of Buddhism in his eight different manifestations.

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