Alchi Monastery

Alchi is a complex of Buddhist temples in Alchi village, about 60 km west of Leh on the Leh-Kargil highway, and is looked after by Likir Monastery. Tradition credits it to the great translator Rinchen Zangpo, who lived from 958 to 1055, but inscriptions point to later patrons and suggest the oldest hall dates from no earlier than around 1140. Together with Mangyu and Sumda Chun it forms the Alchi group of monuments.

The complex includes the Dukhang or assembly hall and the three-storey Sumtseg temple, both built in the Kashmiri manner, along with a Manjushri temple and several chortens. Alchi is known above all for its murals, which reflect both Buddhist themes and the courts of Kashmir and Himachal of the time, and which are among the oldest paintings left in Ladakh. Large Buddha figures and richly worked wood carving add to the interiors.