Ladakh is one of the few places in the world for endless exploration.

MONASTERIES OF LADAKH.

Locally known as Gompa ,the monasteries of Ladakh have been sanctuaries of Buddhist learning as well as repositories of Buddhist arts and artifacts, both imported and indigenously created in ancient times when Kashmir was the Buddhist kingdoms, Buddhism reached Ladakh and, ever since Buddhism continued its presence uninterruptedly even after its disappearance from Kashmir and the setbacks it suffered in Tibet, the two main regions of Buddhist knowledge and arts in the Himalayas.

Tibetan-Buddhism or Ladakhi culture owes almost everything to Buddhism, which was probably brought first to Tibet in the early 7th century of the Christian Era, which finally became a national religion in the 11th century and later flourished in all the Himalayan Buddhist Kingdoms including Ladakh. Tibetan monks meticulously and assiduously translated texts from Sanskrit to their mother tongue, and today many works originally composed in Sanskrit exist only in these Tibetan translations. Thus the canons of Tibetan-Buddhism are very important for the study of Buddhism in general. The existing monasteries of Ladakh fortunately possess hundreds of Buddhist artifacts from Kashmir and Tibet and all the monasteries are affiliated to one of the four major order of Tibet-Buddhism- Nyigmapa, Saskyapa, Gelukpa, and Kargyudpa.

Monasteries of Ladakh belong to different time period, some dating back to 11th century, like Alchi, Mangue and Sumdah-chun which belong to the same architectural tradition of Gandhara art. Besides that rest of the monasteries dated back to 16th century however unfortunately some of the monasteries dating back to 15th century were destroyed by Muslim invasion. Monastery in Ladakh, Tibet and whole Himalayan Buddhist Kingdoms are known by Gompa, Gompa meant sacred solitary or meditation place for monks and the treasures house of frescos painting of various meditational deities, Mandalas and statues of various Bodhisattvas, an endless exploration of Buddhist philosophy which embodied in its Arts and Artifact.
Source-Dlonpo Travelhttp://www.dlonpotravels.com/culture_tour.php