Wanla Gompa is a historic Buddhist monastery on the ridge that crowns Wanla village in

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Its small but impressively preserved three-storeyed Avalokitesvara temple is one of the earliest known Drigung Kagyu prayer chambers to have survived in Ladakh. Wanla is a sub-monastery of Lamayuru, which provides a caretaker monk responsible for daily rituals and for granting access to the temple. The main image features Avalokitesvara in 11-headed ("Chuchigzhel") form. Along with a 1980s side building the monastery sits within the sparse remnants of a medieval castle whose construction is mentioned in Ladakhi chronicles as being by the Ladakhi King Lhachen Ngaglug (lHa-chen Ngag-lug), i.e. probably in the 12th century. The monastery was added in the heart of the castle in the 14th century. This timing adds to academic interest in Wanla since, as some writers have described, this was "an otherwise completely obscure period of Ladakh's history between the foundation of the

Alchi Alchi is a village in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is located in the Likir tehsil, on the banks of the Indus River 70 km downstream from the capital Leh. Unlike the other gompas in Ladakh, Alchi is situated on lowland, not on a hi ...

group of monuments, the latest of which are to be attributed to the early 13th century, and the establishment of the Ladakhi kingdom in the early 15th century". The temple is currently being restored by the Achi Association.Achi Association website
/ref>

References

Neuwirth, Holger & Auer, Carmen (Hrsg.) „The Three Storied Temple of Wanla", Buddhist Architecture in the Western Himalayas, Band 2, Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2015, 205 S.,

External links

* http://www.achiassociation.org/Wanla/WanlaIntro.html {{Authority control Buddhist monasteries in Ladakh Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples in India Drikung Kagyu monasteries and temples