Sankar Monastery, Buddhist monastery in Leh, India
Sankar Monastery is a Buddhist monastery located north of Leh's old town on elevated ground, featuring stone boundary walls and an assembly hall decorated with paintings of the Four Directions guardians. The structure includes multiple levels and small towers that blend into the surrounding hillside.
The current structure was built roughly 90 years ago on the grounds of a 500-year-old temple, serving as a branch of Spituk Monastery. This connection to an older site shows the ongoing spiritual importance of the location across centuries.
Inside you find a statue of Avalokiteshvara with eleven heads and a thousand arms, while walls display mandalas and a Tibetan calendar. These images show the spiritual beliefs of the community that still worships here today.
The monastery is open twice daily in the morning and early evening, with the best visiting season between March and October. Expect steep paths and higher elevation, so plan accordingly for the climb up to the site.
One of the monks has the daily responsibility to light butter lamps twice a day at the nearby Tsemo fort, creating an unusual link between two different places. This practice shows how religious life here extends beyond the monastery's own walls.
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