CityDekho
Diskit Monastery

Diskit Monastery

pilgrimage site · Leh & Ladakh

Diskit is the oldest and largest monastery of the Nubra valley, founded in the 14th century and stacked on a rocky spur above the Shyok river.

State
Leh & Ladakh
Type
Pilgrimage Site

Diskit is the oldest and largest monastery of the Nubra valley, founded in the 14th century and stacked on a rocky spur above the Shyok river. Its prayer halls hold fierce guardian deities and centuries-old murals, but the landmark is newer: the 32-metre Jampa (Maitreya) Buddha on the hill facing Pakistan, consecrated by the Dalai Lama in 2010, gazing out over the cold-desert dunes of Hunder.

When to go

May to September

Why visit

Nubra's great monastery and its 32-metre valley-guarding Buddha, above the Shyok sands.

How to reach

In Diskit town, the Nubra valley headquarters — about 120 km from Leh over Khardung La. Nubra requires an Inner Line Permit, arranged easily in Leh.

Diskit Monastery guide & itineraries

Been to Diskit Monastery?

Write what you would tell a friend — where you stayed, what you would skip, the thing you wish somebody had mentioned before you went. We read every submission before it goes up.

Share your story

People also explored

Travellers viewing Diskit Monastery also loved these

Leh & Ladakh

Stat Tso and Lang Tso

Stat Tso and Lang Tso are a pair of small, lesser-visited lakes in the Zanskar region of Ladakh, near the Pensi La pass.

Leh & Ladakh

Kyun Tso and Ryul Tso

Kyun Tso and Ryul Tso are a pair of high-altitude lakes (reported above 5,000 metres) near Hanle and Nyoma in eastern Ladakh, among the highest and most…

Leh & Ladakh

Shey Palace

Shey Palace and Monastery, 15 km south of Leh in the Indus Valley, served as the summer capital of Ladakh and houses a 12-metre, three-storey gilded statue of…

Leh & Ladakh

Basgo Fort

Basgo Fort and Palace, about 5 km west of Nimoo and 40 km east of Leh, was a political and cultural centre of early Ladakh, frequently mentioned in the…

Leh & Ladakh

Kyagar Tso

Kyagar Tso (Kyago Tso) is a small, turquoise-coloured brackish lake in Ladakh's Changthang plateau, in the "Salt Valley" between Puga Valley to the north and…

More spiritual places to explore

More places you'll love

Kerala

Guruvayur (Sri Krishna Temple)

Guruvayur is a temple town in Kerala centred on the revered Sri Krishna (Guruvayurappan) Temple, often called the Dwarka of the South.

Maharashtra

Siddhivinayak Temple (Mumbai)

Shree Siddhivinayak is Mumbai's most beloved Ganesha temple, built in 1801 and today one of the richest and most-visited shrines in India.

Kerala

Padmanabhaswamy Temple (Thiruvananthapuram)

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram is a Vaishnava shrine where Lord Vishnu reclines on the serpent Anantha in the Anantha-shayanam posture.

Maharashtra

Trimbakeshwar (Jyotirlinga)

Trimbakeshwar, near Nashik in Maharashtra, enshrines one of the twelve sacred Jyotirlingas of Shiva and marks the source of the Godavari, India's…

Andhra Pradesh

Srisailam (Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga)

Srisailam, set amid the forested Nallamala Hills above the Krishna River, is home to the Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Temple, a rare site that is at once one of…

Gujarat

Shatrunjaya Hill

Shatrunjaya Hill rises above the Shatrunjaya River near Palitana town in Bhavnagar district, and no other mountain in the world carries anything like what…

Gujarat

Pavagadh Hill

Pavagadh Hill is a volcanic plateau rising about 822 metres from the plains of the Panchmahal district, at the heart of the UNESCO-listed Champaner-Pavagadh…

Gujarat

Valsad

Valsad, once known as Bulsar, sits at the southern tip of Gujarat on the Arabian Sea.

Gujarat

Jamnagar

Jamnagar, once the princely capital of Nawanagar under the Jadeja rulers, sits on the southern Gulf of Kutch.

Gujarat

Gandhinagar

Gandhinagar is Gujarat's planned capital, laid out on the west bank of the Sabarmati by the architects H.K. Mewada and Prakash M.

Tamil Nadu

Kanyakumari Beach

At the southernmost tip of mainland India, Kanyakumari is famous for sunrises and sunsets over three converging seas, the Vivekananda Rock and the…

Jayanti (Jaintiapur)

Jaintiapur is in Bangladesh's Sylhet division, an hour or so from the Dawki crossing.

Trending in Leh & Ladakh

Leh

Leh

Leh sits at 3,500 metres and the single most important thing about it is that you cannot skip the first two days. Fly in and you arrive from sea level in ninety minutes. Spend the first forty-eight hours doing almost nothing — walk slowly, drink far more water than feels reasonable, no alcohol, no trekking. People who ignore this lose a week to altitude sickness or end up on a flight out. Coming overland from Manali or Srinagar acclimatises you properly, and if you have the days it is the better arrival. Once you are adjusted: Thiksey monastery at dawn for the morning prayers, which visitors are welcome at and which almost nobody attends. Hemis is grander but further. The Indus valley villages between Leh and Nimmu are where you see how people actually live at this altitude. Pangong and Nubra both need inner-line permits, arranged in Leh in a morning, and both are long hard drives. Pangong as a day trip is a mistake — twelve hours in a car for an hour at a lake. The road season is roughly June to September. Outside it the passes close and Leh is reachable only by air.

Hemis Monastery

Hemis Monastery

Hemis belongs to the Drukpa (Dragon) lineage of the Kagyu sect, and it is set back in a mountain canyon on the western bank of the Indus, roughly 45 kilometres south of Leh. It is the largest and wealthiest monastery in Ladakh, and the most influential. The buildings are traditional Tibetan monastic architecture on a large scale: whitewashed stone walls, timber windows painted in fine detail, and wide flagstone courtyards. Below is a museum holding centuries of gold-plated statues, sacred thangkas and old weapons.

Leh Palace

Leh Palace

Leh Palace is a nine-storey former royal palace overlooking Leh, modelled on the Potala Palace in Lhasa, with upper floors that housed the royal family and lower floors used as stables and storerooms.

Where next?

More like Diskit Monastery

Spiritual & Pilgrimage

Or a different kind of trip

Hill StationsBeachesHeritage

Everything in Leh & LadakhBrowse all destinations