Lamayuru Monastery, Buddhist monastery in Leh district, India

Lamayuru Monastery, also called Yuru Monastery, is a Tibetan Buddhist gompa built on a sheer eroded rock cliff at 3,510 metres in Leh district. Its main rectangular block is white-plastered with a flat roof edged by a red band and two rows of dark-brown-framed windows, each with a small projecting wooden balcony. Beside it stands a white stupa with a stepped base, a square midsection bearing a red band, and a spire of alternating yellow and black rings topped by a gold finial. A lower building with one window is cut into the rock below.

Tradition credits the Indian scholar Naropa with drying up the lake that filled the valley and founding the monastery; the cave where he meditated is kept in the central hall. The oldest surviving building, the Seng-ge-sgang temple at the southern end of the rock, is attributed to the translator Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055). In the 16th century Denma Kunga Drakpa established the Drikung Kagyu monastery here. In 1834 Zorawar Singh's troops destroyed it; only six monks returned.

The name Yungdrung refers to the swastika shape that barley grains from Madhyantika's water offering reportedly grew into; the monastery is also called Tharpaling, "land of liberation", after a law by the kings of Ladakh and Balti granting pardon to criminals who reached it. Two masked dance festivals are held in the second and fifth Tibetan lunar months, when monks from surrounding gompas gather to pray.

The monastery stands on the NH1 Srinagar-Leh highway, 15 km east of the Fotu La pass and 19 km southwest of Khalsi, at 3,510 metres. The road is the main approach by bus or shared taxi. The altitude makes slow acclimatisation advisable, and the rock face and stepped stupa base are reached on foot.

The monastery's Tibetan name, Yuru, means "Eternal Monastery"; tradition also links the site to the swastika (yungdrung), a Bon symbol of eternity, since the monastery was originally the foremost Bon monastery in Ladakh. Barley grains from Madhyantika's water offering are said to have sprouted in that shape.