Leh travel guide

Top 10 sights in Leh

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1. 

   1© RPSkokie · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Leh Palace

   A nine-storey palace of about 1600 built by Sengge Namgyal, and a smaller model for the Potala that followed it in Lhasa. The royal family left it in the 1830s when Ladakh fell to Dogra invasion; the mud-brick shell is being restored floor by floor.

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2. 

   2© Michael Goodine · CC BY 2.0

   Shanti Stupa

   A white domed stupa on a hilltop above Leh, built by Japanese Buddhists of the Nipponzan-Myohoji order and consecrated by the Dalai Lama in 1991. Five hundred and fifty steps climb to it, and the terrace takes in the whole valley and the Stok range.

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3. 

   3© Shashank Mehendale · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Thikse Monastery

   A Gelug monastery rising in twelve storeys up a hill outside Leh, and often compared to the Potala. Its fifteen-metre seated Maitreya was installed for a visit by the Dalai Lama in 1970; dawn prayers with horns and drums are open to visitors.

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4. 

   4© Baldiri · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Palace of Stok

   A palace on the banks of the Stok river in Stok village, 14 km from Leh in Ladakh, India. It was the seat of Ladakh's Namgyal dynasty until 1846 and now houses a museum.

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5. 

   5© Nellyrieuf · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Matho Monastery

   The only Sakya monastery in Ladakh, twenty-six kilometres from Leh on the Indus. Its oracles, two monks chosen every three years, prophesy in trance at the spring festival, and it keeps a museum of restored thangkas.

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6. 

   6© Bernard Gagnon Canon EOS REBEL T4i · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Phyang Monastery

   A Buddhist monastery in the village of Phyang, some fifteen kilometres west of Leh in Ladakh in northern India, founded in 1515.

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7. 

   7© Karunakar Rayker from India · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Namgyal Tsemo Monastery

   A monastery of the sixteenth century on the ridge above Leh, holding a three-storey gilded Maitreya and old wall paintings. The ruins of the Namgyal fort stand above it and the climb takes about half an hour.

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8. 

   8© Bhrigu bayan · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Sankar Monastery

   A monastery half an hour's walk from Leh, a branch of Spituk and the residence of the senior lama of Ladakh. Its upper shrine holds a thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara and it is quiet in a way the larger gompas are not.

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9. 

   9© Ronakshah1990 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Stakna Monastery

   A Drukpa monastery on a hill above the Indus, founded in the late sixteenth century by a Bhutanese monk. Its name means tiger's nose, after the shape of the rock it stands on.

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10. 

    10© Kmohankar · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Shey Monastery

    A monastery and palace on the hill at Shey, fifteen kilometres south of Leh on the Leh-Manali road in Ladakh in northern India. It was the summer capital of old Ladakh and holds a colossal seated Shakyamuni.

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1. 

   1© Baldiri · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Stok Monastery

   A monastery fifteen kilometres south of Leh, founded in the fourteenth century, with a library holding the hundred and eight volumes of the Kangyur. The Ladakhi royal family lives at the palace below it.

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