Phyang Gompa

A mere 17km west of Leh, PHYANG gompa looms large at the head of a secluded side-valley that tapers north into the Ladakh Range from the Srinagar highway. It was built by Tashi Namgyal in the later half of the 16th century A.D.and looks like a place from a distance.The gompa belongs to the Red Cap sect of the Buddhists.  Hundreds of icons of Budha are kept on wooden shelves.

The gompa itself houses a fifty-strong community of lamas, but few antique murals of note, most having recently been painted over with brighter colors. Its only treasures are a small collection of fourteenth-century Kashmir bronzes, and the light of airy Du-khang’s three silver chortens, one of which is decorated with a seven-eyed dzi stone. The gem, considered to be highly auspicious, was brought to Phyang from Tibet by the monastery’s former head lama, whose ashes the chorten encases.

The gompa’s gloomily atmospheric Gon-khang houses a ferocious veiled protector deity and an amazing collection of weapons and armour plundered during the Mongol invasions of the fourteenth century. Also dangling from the cobweb covered rafters are various bits of dead animals, including most of a vulture and several sets of yak horns, believed to be nine-hundred-year-old relics of the Bon cult.

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Zanskar

Walled in by the Great Himalayan Divide, Zanskar, literally " Land of White Copper" has for decades exrted the allure of Shangri La on visitours to Ladakh.

Zangla

Zangla is the nodal point on the popular Padum Strongdey Zangla Karsha Padum round trip, which covers most of the cultural sites of Zanskar.

Zongkhul

Zongkhul falls on the Padum-Kishtwar trekking trail, just before the ascent of Omasi-la Pass begins

The Suru Valley

Diving two of the world's most formidable mountain ranges, the Suru Valley winds south from Kargil to the desolate Pensi La the main entry point for Zanskar. 

North of Leh : Nubra Valley

Until 1994, the lands north of Leh were off limits to tourists and had been unexplored by outsiders since the nineteenth century.

Drass Valley

Drass (3230 m), 60 km west of Kargil on the road to Srinagar, is a small township lying in the centre of the valley of the same name . 

Shyok Valley

The Shyok River receives the waters of the Nubra and Changchenmo rivers. It rises from the Khumdang glacier, which can be approached from Shyok.

Pangong Tso

Pangong Tso, 15km to the southeast of Leh, is one of the largest saltwater lakes in Asia, a long narrow strip of water stretching from Ladakh east into Tibet.

Tso Moriri

Tso Moriri or "Mountain Lake" is Famous for the large herds of king, or wild ass, which graze on its shores, the lake of Tso Moriri, 210km southeast of Leh, lies in the sparsely populated region of Rupshu.