Spiti
The warm-weather terrace of the Himalayan buzzes with wise-cracking staff, youthful music and a happy graffiti-mural chic that becomes all the more enticing when strung with lights and lanterns at night.
Satisfying, well-cooked food covers all bases and beer is available. Some of Kaza's most attractive guesthouse rooms (single/double ₹1500/1800) are available in an unsigned building next door.
20.26 MILES
Founded in AD 996, and retaining five sub-temples dating back over 900 years, Tabo Gompa is reckoned to be the oldest continuously functioning Buddhist…
12.37 MILES
Like a series of whitewashed limpets, the 1200-year-old Dhankar Gompa clings precariously to an eroded cliff-edge rock pinnacle, high above the beautiful…
28.32 MILES
Forming the watershed between Lahaul and Spiti, this 4551m pass, accessed by multiple switchbacks, is topped by a grassy area where stupas are strewn with…
6.18 MILES
Covering a conical hillock with an array of whitewashed monastic buildings, Ki (Kee, Key) is the largest gompa in Spiti. Views of it from the south are…
29.49 MILES
Gue village (rhymes with 'few') is photogenically crowned by a colourful three-layered shrine-temple. This celebrates Tulka Sangya Tenzin, a mysterious…
10.96 MILES
Near the top of Lhalung village, this outwardly modest monastery is actually an antique gem. Beneath a yellow painted tin roof, the very atmospheric…
13.02 MILES
Offering beautiful reflections of the mountainscape plus chorten, this small lake sits high above Dhankar, accessed on foot by a steep 2km path that…
2.36 MILES
Probably founded in the 14th century near Hikkim, Tangyud monastery relocated to Komic after a devastating 1975 earthquake. The oldest section is within…
0.29 MILES
The colourful new Sakya Gompa, inaugurated in 2009, stands just above the main road in New Kaza. Across the road is a row of eight stupas, with lines of…
2.36 MILES
Probably founded in the 14th century near Hikkim, Tangyud monastery relocated to Komic after a devastating 1975 earthquake. The oldest section is within…
3.64 MILES
The golden face-paint is starting to peel off the large 2005 Buddha statue, who stares across the Spiti valley from a shoulder of ridge above Langza…
6.18 MILES
Covering a conical hillock with an array of whitewashed monastic buildings, Ki (Kee, Key) is the largest gompa in Spiti. Views of it from the south are…
10.96 MILES
Near the top of Lhalung village, this outwardly modest monastery is actually an antique gem. Beneath a yellow painted tin roof, the very atmospheric…
12.35 MILES
On the very crown of the gompa crag stands the crumbling fort-cum-palace that gave Dhankar its name (khar means 'citadel' and dhak means 'cliff'). Now…
12.37 MILES
Like a series of whitewashed limpets, the 1200-year-old Dhankar Gompa clings precariously to an eroded cliff-edge rock pinnacle, high above the beautiful…
8. Ugyen Sangnak Choling Gompa
12.4 MILES
At Kungri, this very large, custard-yellow monastery is predominantly new but has three much more interesting medieval shrines, featuring blackened murals…