Hemis Monastery

Hemis Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery ("gompa") of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh (within the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir). Situated 45 km from Leh, the monastery was established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Senge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June.

An 1894 century travel book by Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch claims Hemis as the origin of an otherwise unknown gospel, the "Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men," in which Jesus is said to have traveled to India during his "lost years." According to Notovitch, the work had been preserved in the Hemis library, and was shown to him by the monks there while he was recuperating from an injury. When the abbot later denied all knowledge of such a text, Notovitch (in a series of exchanges with F. Max Mueller) hinted that the lamas would have good reason to lie about the subject.

The current abbot of Hemis, His Holiness the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa, spiritual head of the Drukpa Lineage was featured in a travelogue, "The Dragon Has Fleas."