Stok, Likir, & Alchi: The Last Ride of the Season
A quick ride through Stok Palace, Stok, Gompa, Likir Gompa, & Alchi Gompa in October, end of season, followed by a close escape to Manali from Leh.
A quick ride through Stok Palace, Stok, Gompa, Likir Gompa, & Alchi Gompa in October, end of season, followed by a close escape to Manali from Leh.
Due to its Tibetan Buddhist heritage, people identify Ladakh as a land of gompas but it used to be an independent Kingdom too. Naturally, there are lots of palaces and forts in Ladakh too. Some of them can be found in the city of Leh itself while many others are scattered in the far-off areas.
Thikse Monastery on the Leh-Manali highway is a structure so massive that it is hard not to notice it. This 15th-century construction is one of the largest gompas in Ladakh and design is compared often to Potala Palace.
Stakna is a smaller monastery with the best possible setting on the Leh Manali Highway. It also has a Bhutanese connection but the best part is the views of Indus you get from the top.
Hemis is among the largest monasteries in Ladakh, but I was obsessed more with amazing autumn landscapes & also with the unlikely Jesus theories linked to it.
Photographs of a Ladakhi autumn shot during an impromptu bike ride through various monasteries and villages along the Leh Manali highway. Yellow and orange of poplars and willows standout in contarst to the clear blue Himalayan sky.