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A relatively new addition to the rocky skyline around
Leh
is the toothpaste white Shanti Stupa above Changspa village, 3km west of
the bazaar. Inaugurated in 1983 by the Dalai Lama, the "Peace Pagoda",
whose sides are decorated with gilt panels depicting episodes from the
life of the Buddha, is one of several such monuments erected around India
by a "Peace Sect" of Japanese Buddhists.
The Dusky Beauty
The site of the Stupa is particularly atmospheric at dusk, when the drums
played at evening Puja seem to set the pace of growing shadows as the sun
sinks behind the mountains in the west.
Road: The Shanti Stupa can be reached by car, or on foot via a steep flight of five hundred steps, which winds up the ridge from the end of Changspa lane.