Stakna Monastery

Stakna Monastery is a Buddhist monastery of the Drukpa sect at Stakna in Leh district, Ladakh, on the left bank of the Indus about 21 to 25 km from Leh. The Bhutanese scholar-saint Chosje Modzin founded it towards the end of the 16th century, and its name, meaning 'tiger's nose', comes from the shape of the hill it stands on.

It is the only monastery in Ladakh of the Bhutanese Drukpa Kagyu line, headed by the Je Khenpo of Bhutan; the other Drukpa monasteries belong to the school of the Gyalwang Drukpa, whose seat is Hemis, a division that dates from a 17th-century dispute over who was the rightful rebirth of the fourth Gyalwang Drukpa. About 30 monks live here, and the monastery keeps a sacred statue of Arya Avalokiteshvara from Kamrup in Assam.