This is the 4th blog post in the Spiti winter drive series. In the previous post I shared my travel experience from Kalpa to Kaza. The heavy landslide at Malling nallah delayed our arrival at Kaza but still we enjoyed our complete journey. We slept quite late last night but still I woke up at around 6 AM today. I was very excited to witness the first glimpse of Kaza, so I got up and rushed to the balcony of the room. It was bone-chilling cold outside, the temperature was around -10°C. The amazing view outside absorbed all the hangover from the last night. Standing in the balcony, I could hear the holy sounds of “Om Mane Pud Hum” which was playing in a nearby house. It was so quiet and calm that it felt like the sound was echoing in all of Kaza.

Life in Kaza, Spiti Valley

While I was enjoying the view, a few other friends also woke up and the chit-chat followed. After having tea I decided to walk around Kaza to know it better. Talking to people around, I realized that improved electricity and internet services have helped the people of Kaza a lot. A lot of people have now started visiting Kaza and the income from tourism have increased significantly. This region remains cut off in the winters due to heavy snowfall, so tourism takes place majorly in 6-7 months of the year. Walking around the streets of Kaza, the architecture of the houses made me curious. Most of the houses were mud houses and the rooftops were flat where they had stored the woods for burning in the winters.

Kaza monastery

The kaza monastery is the one of the first things that caught my eye when I was standing on the Hotel balcony in the morning. This is the major monastery in Kaza and is really beautifully built. Unfortunately, it was closed due to covid restrictions, so couldn’t see it from inside. The monastery belongs to the Sakya sect, which is one of the 4 major schools of the Tibetan Buddhism.

The Kaza stupas

Right in front of the Kaza monastery, there are amazing stupas constructed in a row, right beside the road. They were the first things that I saw when I reached Kaza yesterday night. The real beauty of their architecture could only be observed in the morning, when I was observing them up close. The colors, the designs and their build, were pretty mesmerizing.

Best time to visit Kaza

I would suggest to visit kaza during the summer months. The spiti valley gets closed during the winter months. The best time to visit would be between March to September months