Inside India's Only Hidden Monastery having a Natural Mummy !

When you hear of the word mummy, you immediately associate with the Pyramids of Egypt and the film mummy, made on the same !

But what if I told you that India has its own mummy housed away in this Hidden Monastery in Spiti ?

Unbelievable right?

I thought so, too! When I was on a group expedition to Spiti, our convoy had time before reaching KAZA, and we took a detour to Gue Village. Never had I imagined what I will find at this village - a locked Monestary, a hidden mummy & mountains that are on the Indo-China border.

It was the road less travelled, for there was literally no road - we were on an expedition with 4W4 vehicles and could easily manoeuvre the route. Plus, we also had the benefit of a local from Kaza who was a part of the convoy. We reached the Gue Village and took the" Mummy Road" towards the Monastery.

We parked our vehicles at an abandoned Helicopter Landing spot while an army official helped us with navigating the monastery. He forbade us from clicking pictures with mountains behind the Monastery - for it was the China border. Also, a strange phenomenon occurred with our tech devices - it showed the timings as 4 PM while it was actually around 12 PM. We realized later that being this close to the China Border had messed up with our phone's, and it was catching the Chinese Time Zone.

The main monastery was closed, however we got the full view of the mummy. According to the local folks, the mummy still grows its hair & nails. He was found after the 1975 earthquake in one of the expeditions by Indo Tibet Police in 1981. It is now housed in a Japanese style temple, next to the main monastery & worshipped by the locals.

A research team from Oxford has found via Carbon Dating that the mummy has been in the same posture since 1430 AD & nothing has been used to preserve the mummy.

Gue Monastery is just 40KMs from Tabo Monastery and if you are visiting Spiti, this monastery should absolutely be on your list!