NATURAL STREAM WATER FLOWS AT ICE STUPA... AND THE ICE... ANY GUESSES !!! ???
As if playing by a script, on 21st June water started flowing regularly at the Ice Stupa plantations as natural glacial melt waters started trickling down in the streams of Phyang.
We have not been inside the Ice Stupa for a long time as the gates to the central dome inside were blocked more than a month ago to conserve the ice. And today on 27th June we wanted to check if there was still any ice at the core. I had a bet with young monk Lama Konchok from the Phyang monastery who came to help me excavate the gate through the painful thorns that cover it thickly.
The young monk said there would be no ice left in the Ice Stupa. I believed him but said the opposite just for the fun of betting and we got digging through bushes.
While he waited outside, I shouted to concede defeat as there was no ice inside the central dome. Then as I was about to wriggle my way out of the plastic sheet dome, I thought ... there is still a lot of moisture on the ground so there is still some possibility of ice being around. And reluctantly I forced my way to the shaded north side of the dome deep into thick seabuck thorn bushes... And lo and behold ... there was still some 4 meters stretch of ice on the ground. I took a small piece of ice as a gift to the Lama... and of course as a proof my victory.
The Lama was happier losing this bet because this means so much more for the Ice Stupa experiment, for Ladakh and for the world.