Fuktal Gompa, a photo from Jammu and Kashmir, North

Photographer's Note

Fuktal Gompa: This Buddhist monastery built on the rock face lies in the interiors of Zanskar in India. Closest motorable road is four days of trek from here. This place had the most interesting Planning and Architecture that I saw in the entire Ladakh.
The temperatures in winters tend to drop as much as -35 in the night and remember that these people do not have electricity and yet they live over there in the winters.
Please excuse the quality of the shot, When I travel, I try to carry a very simple camera with me as I travel not to take photos but to be there. But I must admit that sometimes I do miss my good cameras.

Critiques would be appreciated

amol, Luan, Emile, apache, mlopes, maurajn, ewa1, annagrace, touristdidi, capthaddock, riclopes, stego has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

kensimage (8563) 2005-05-11 12:12

I can't imagine what it must have been like to build the place! Now it definitely looks like a good place for contemplation, without interruptions.

This is a good composition, putting the monastery in context, but the technical quality isn't so great--it looks like low resulotion.

summersun (4978) 2005-05-11 12:37

this monastery looks like it is part of the moutain, so beautiful ! nice colors and textures. good composition. the rocks contrast well with the blue of the sky.
Vanessa

bboss (3578) 2005-05-11 14:14

Wow, amazing place. And well done for getting there, I know the route is not easy.
Some technical issues here, but the view and architecture is stunning anyway
cheers, David

jeanfrancois (1260) 2005-05-11 14:50

Je rève d'y aller un jour...
Merci de nous le montrer de si près.
A bientôt
JF

cam (9043) 2005-05-12 0:41

hello Sarju.
Impressive place and out of the way as you noted.
It makes me think of Rocamadour,to see this place hanging like that.
The beauty of the place and of the composition makes me forget about the noise .
Thanks for sharing.

amol (952) 2005-05-12 3:03

hi Sarju
you have captured a great landscape...I excuse its quality...
but then as a critique I must point out the following... for one, there is too much of red hue in the image and also that the image should have been sharper...I have posted a workshop...hope you like it...

[workshop] [compare]

Emile (20352) 2005-05-14 9:51

Very impressive place, very good work you did in WS.
Very well captured.
Well done.

Luan (12971) 2005-05-15 3:51

Incredible, this village doesn't look real. It seems to be hard to live in such condition, but they are closer to Nirvana here...nice shot and thanks for sharing.
Have a nice day
Luan

apache (1426) 2005-05-15 10:34

Hi Sarju...I remember seeing this picture of yours clearly and having written notes to it.
I should say this is a very nice find sarju. A unique architecture and way of life. Thanks for sharing it.
Nice notes too.
Ranjith

mlopes (494) 2005-05-16 19:03

Hi Sarju, you said that this was the most interesting planning and architecture that you saw in Ladakh. I must say that this is one of the most incredible construction that i've seen.

Does actually anyone live here? only Buddists? 4 days trekking is way too much to supply them, how do they survive?

Thanks, amazing
Mario

oochappan (4880) 2005-05-17 21:52

Indeed the quality .... but I found the target of this most authentic monastery realy a nice view almost incredible that budhist can survive there at winters that I gave it a try to improve this quality in a WS.

[workshop] [compare] +

nilolabrador (1469) 2005-05-18 3:06

Quality or not the visual information about this place I got it. Impressive and very interesting.

weswang (18247) 2005-05-18 3:22

Hi Sarju, An excellent shot to this unusual scenery. It is amazing that how the people live in the middle of hill with not plant at all and why. You have demonstrated a very nice PP in your WSs. It is too bad that we cannot mark your own WS. You have done a great job.

maurajn (902) 2005-05-21 0:45

Now this is trekking from my living room! Thanks for bringing this unusual village to my attention. And my gosh, oochappan did a great workshop, one of the best I've ever seen on here.

ewa1 (222) 2005-05-24 13:14

hi,
taht must be really a great place. i'd love to see it on my own. i like your composition- half the blue sky, half the rock.
i do excuse you the quality of the picture, but at the same time i "have to" give you only 1 point because of it... (i'd give you 2 for sure if the shot was sharper). cheers,
Ewa

annagrace (2469) 2005-05-25 19:19

This is amazing, Sarju, how similar this place in India is to the cave dwellers in Arizona (southwestern United States). I thought your note was great - it's hard to believe anyone could live in those extreme temperatures.

Great capture!

touristdidi (8583) 2005-07-03 6:17 [Comment]

Show Comment

capthaddock (28790) 2005-07-30 12:16

Hi Sarju - the quality is fine, if only a little too magenta, but the tremendous view of the monestary camouflaged in the rock compensates for that.

Guse (83) 2005-10-17 17:25

Fantastic place and a good composition.

ashinpt (101) 2005-10-20 23:00

This is what amazes me about people in such regions. They would make buildings in such unimaginable places that you are left astounded. Nice capture, Sarju.

sergio1 (12152) 2005-11-25 4:49

Hola amigo Sarju
Increible construcion ubica en la roca. La composición está muy bien aunque veo algo raro en la definición puede ser que esté escaneada???
Tal vez sea por la gran presencia del sol pero de todos modos una buena captura.
Saludos

riclopes (35577) 2005-12-06 5:16

Well Sarju, you are right! I would love to go to a place like this some day (but -35º?!) That's what a place in the midle of nowhere is! 4 days to get there! Uhau! That must be quite an experience.
As we already talked about the quality of the shots posted, this is a good example of that - A not very good quality one, but an excellent place to show in a wonderful composition. It's very nice to see that sky contrasting with the whole landscape. And it sure must be very interesting place in terms of architectural planning.
Thanks a lot for sharing and captured my attention to it.
Cheers,
Ricardo

Stepan (27210) 2005-12-12 17:53

I regret the bad quality of the shot, but I really enjoy the place. Very impressive and almost unreal. I can't imagine the life here.
Thanks for the sharing.
Stéphane

colorblind (7) 2006-07-17 20:25

thank you for this picture of an amazing place