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Nestled amid the shimmering poplar coppices and terraced
fields of barley that extend up the valley behind
Leh
, Sankar Gompa, 3-km north of the town centre, is among the most
accessible monasteries in central
Ladakh
- hence its restricted visiting hours for tourists. About The
Monastery & Its Attractions
The monastery, a small under Gompa of Spitok, is staffed by twenty monks,
and is the official residence of the Kushok Bakul, Ladakh's head of the
Gelug-pa sect. Appropriately for such a high-ranking 'Rinpoche', his
glass-fronted penthouse enjoys pride of place on top of the main building,
crowned with a golden spire and a "Dharma Chakra" flanked by two
deer, symbolizing the Buddha's first sermon in Sarnath.
A flight of steps leads from the courtyard to the Du-khang. Beyond the
lords of the four quarters and wheel of life Mandala that adorn the
verandah, one enters a high ceilinged hall whose walls writhe with
lustrous multicoloured murals. Those on either side of the doorway are the
most amazing: many armed pot bellied bovine monsters drink blood from
skull cups, while the copulating "Yab-Yum" couples to the right
are garlanded with severed heads and engulfed in swirling red and yellow
flames. 
The Deity
Above the Du Khang stands the Gompa's principal deity, Tara, in her
triumphant, 1,000 armed form as "Dukkar", or "Lady of the
White Parasol", presiding over a light, airy shrine room whose walls
are adorned with a Tibetan calendar and tableaux depicting "dos and
don'ts" for monks - some very arcane indeed. Another flight of steps
leads to the Gompa library and, eventually, a roof terrace with fine views
towards the north side of Namgyal Tsemo hill and the valley to the south.
Road: One can get there either by car, or on foot: turn left at the junction above Ali Shah's Postcard shop, and then right onto the concrete path that runs alongside the stream. Sankar appears after about twenty minutes' walk, surrounded by sun-bleached Chortens and a high mud wall.