A monk wearing a mask performs a dance on the first day of the two-day festival in Hemis Gompa, 45km southeast of Leh yesterday. The Hemis Gompa is the oldest and biggest monastery in Ladakh. The annual festival celebrates the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava, the founder of Lamaism, an off-shoot of Buddhism, in the eighth century. The two-day festival is marked by ritual dancing in which dancers wear masks representing deities and evil spirits.
