Five Hundred Years, and Still Solving Problems: Phyang Monastery
A monk pitched his tent below a hill outside Leh, saw a protectress ride past on a blue horse, and built here. Five centuries later, his lineage’s current holder looked at the desert below the same hill and asked for a glacier to be built on it.
The Monastery That Raised Ladakh’s Most Famous Son: Samstanling Monastery Nubra Valley
You land at an airport named after a man who spent his childhood winters here. Most Nubra itineraries give Samstanling ten minutes between the dunes and the hot springs. It is worth considerably more than that, and the reason is not the murals.
Where the First Tibetan Dictionary Was Written: Phugtal Monastery
Seventy monks live inside a cliff in south-eastern Zanskar, in a cave that has drawn scholars for longer than anyone can properly date. Until recently it took days to reach. A road has changed that — and it is worth understanding what the road changed before you go.
The Temple Built in a Single Night: The Legend of Sumda Chun.
Sumda Chun is the least visited of Ladakh’s great early temples and the best preserved. The two facts are not unrelated. A day trip from Leh, into a valley the road only recently found.
