The last rite of Ayu Lhamo (Sonam Zangmo) was performed on March 8. She passed away at an age of 95.

Tashi Gyaltson, CEC, Hill Council, Leh; Chering Dorje Lakruk, Vice-President, Ladakh Buddhist Association, religious leaders and people from all walks of life paid tribute to the departed soul. 

Ayu Lhamo was a spiritually elevated lady of perfection, who would resolve human problems through her spiritually elevated mediums called Buddhist Shaman or oracle tradition, which remained an attraction to both local and western tourists coming to Ladakh.

Nawang Tsering Shakspo, Director, Centre for Research on Ladakh and the producer of a film called, Oracles and demons of Ladakh, said that Ayu-Lhamo, was the torchbearer of Oracle tradition in Ladakh since the region opened for world tourism in the year 1974. In the past, extensive studies were carried out by scholars on the life and legacy of her tradition and obtained doctorate degrees and produced dozens of articles. They said that her passing away is a great loss to the believer in the healing of humankind through a spiritually elevated medium called Lhamo or Lhaba. 

Ayu-Lhamo served the people of Ladakh through her elevated spiritual medium for about five decades and she remained a focal point for many who looked at Ladakh as a spiritually elevated region, where the traditional Buddhism ethos still persists in people's way of life.