Mountain Art – Large Ancient Himalayan Buddhas – 4

The Yarma Gombo

A set of natural rock formations revered and venerated by Buddhists as the appearance resembles the face of Buddha and other dieties.

I would not have known of this place at all had it been for my Aryan companion. 

Heard of it for the first time at 3.30pm at Panamik and we started at 4pm believing that we’d be there in an hour. 

At  5.30 we were still looking for it – as the population there is small and we had no one to ask besides passing drivers. With directions that were simple but not orecise we lost our way and backtracked several times. 

And finally reached the monastery built to honor these formations at 6.45pm. 

A complete absence of monks there made us wonder what was going on. But then we found a Nepali caretaker who showed us the little he knew. 

The little temple built near the formation. 

The ‘viewing gallery’ with direction pointers to show us where to look for the images.

And finally the mountain face:

Can you see the face of Buddha? 

Stunning journey of seeking and finding! 

May 2018