Location: Leh, Ladakh Region, J&K
Timing: Daily - 7.00 am - 9.00 am
Nearby Attraction: Maitreya Temple

Once one is acclimatized to the altitude, the stiff early morning hike up to Namgyal Tsemo Gompa, the monastery perched precariously on the shaly crag behind Leh palace, is a great way to start the day.

Two trails lead up to "the Peak of Victory", whose twin peaks are connected by giant strings of multicoloured prayer flags; the first and most popular path zigzags across it south side from the palace road, while a second scales the more gentle northern slope via the village of Chubi, which is also the route followed by the Lama from Sankar Gompa who tends to the shrine each morning and evening. Alternatively, one can drive there along the dirt track that turns left off the main Khardung-la highway, 2-km north of the bus stand.

Maitreya Temple
Approaching the Gompa from the south, the first building one comes to is the red- painted Maitreya temple. Thought to date from the 14th century, the shrine houses a giant Buddha statue flanked by Bodhisattvas. However, its wall paintings are modern and of less interest than those in the "Gon Khang", or the temple of protector deities, up the hill.

Most famous of these, on the left of the door as one enters, is the honorary portrait of Tashi Namgyal, the temple's founder and prolific builder. In the gloomy interior, one can just make out murals of "Shakyamuni" (the historical Buddha) and Tsongkha-pa, founder of the Gelug-pa sect. The veiled central deity itself sports a shiny phallus, believed to cure infertility in women.

Location: 3-km From Leh, Ladakh Region, J&K
Significance: Official Residence Of The Kushok Bakul, Ladakh's Head Of The Gelug- Pa Sect.
Timing: 7.00 am - 10.00 am & 5.00 pm - 7.00 pm

Nestled amid the shimmering poplar coppices and terraced fields of barley that extend up the valley behind Leh , Sankar Gompa, 3-km north of the town centre, is among the most accessible monasteries in central Ladakh - hence its restricted visiting hours for tourists.

About The Monastery & Its Attractions
The monastery, a small under Gompa of Spitok, is staffed by twenty monks, and is the official residence of the Kushok Bakul, Ladakh's head of the Gelug-pa sect. Appropriately for such a high-ranking 'Rinpoche', his glass-fronted penthouse enjoys pride of place on top of the main building, crowned with a golden spire and a "Dharma Chakra" flanked by two deer, symbolizing the Buddha's first sermon in Sarnath.

A flight of steps leads from the courtyard to the Du-khang. Beyond the lords of the four quarters and wheel of life Mandala that adorn the verandah, one enters a high ceilinged hall whose walls writhe with lustrous multicoloured murals. Those on either side of the doorway are the most amazing: many armed pot bellied bovine monsters drink blood from skull cups, while the copulating "Yab-Yum" couples to the right are garlanded with severed heads and engulfed in swirling red and yellow flames.

The Deity
Above the Du Khang stands the Gompa's principal deity, Tara, in her triumphant, 1,000 armed form as "Dukkar", or "Lady of the White Parasol", presiding over a light, airy shrine room whose walls are adorned with a Tibetan calendar and tableaux depicting "dos and don'ts" for monks - some very arcane indeed. Another flight of steps leads to the Gompa library and, eventually, a roof terrace with fine views towards the north side of Namgyal Tsemo hill and the valley to the south.

HOW TO GET THERE
Road: One can get there either by car, or on foot: turn left at the junction above Ali Shah's Postcard shop, and then right onto the concrete path that runs alongside the stream. Sankar appears after about twenty minutes' walk, surrounded by sun-bleached Chortens and a high mud wall.