Thiksey Monastery

Thiksey Gonpa, 20 kms from Leh is the most beautiful of all monasteries in Ladakh and belongs to the Gelukpa order. Sherab Zangpo of stood first build the Gonpa of stakmo. Later the nephew of Sherab Zangpo, Spon Paldan Sherab founded the Thiksey Gonpa on a hill tope to north of Indus river in 1430 AD. There are sacred shrines and many precious objects to be seen. There are eighty monks residing in the Gonpa.

Shey Palace & Monastery

Ladakh
Leh town, Tsemo Gompa, Palace, Jama Masjid. Forts & Palaces: Shey, Bazgo, Stok. Monasteries: Thiksey, Stakna, Hemis, Chemrey, Taktok, Matho, Spituk, Phyang, Likir, Alchi, Rizong, Lamayuru. Passes: Zojila, Khandongla, Changla etc. Valleys: Zanaskar, Dras & Sur (Kargil), Nubra (Leh), Maitreya Buddha statute (Kargil). High altitude lakes: Pangong, Tso Moriri, Lowan etc Tribal communities: Brokpa etec. Festivals dedicated to each Monastery. Highest peaks: Nun & Kun (Kargil).

Shey Palace, the old capital of Ladakh
15 kms south of Leh and to the west bank of river Indus is the royal Palace dating from the 1840s when the invading Dogra Forces deposed the king of Ladakh. The Palace is a rambling building where only a dozen of the 80 rooms are used. The small palace Museum (3 rooms) is worth visiting. The Gonpa was found by Lama Lhawang Lotus in 14th Century, and has some ritual mask dance (Guru Tseschu) held on the 9th and 10th day of the 1st Tibetan Month.
Shey Palace & Monastery
King Deldan Namgial (1620-1640) built Shey Palace in the beginning of the 17th century AD. The main image in the monastery is the 3 storey statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, made of copper gilt, which was made by King Deldan Namgial in the memory of his father Singay Namgial. The statue is the only one of its kind in the region.

Burzhama Ruins

Burza Hama is situated in the north-west of Kashmir, nearly 24 kms from Shalimar road Srinagar and 16 kms from Naseem Bagh Road Srinagar. It is a karewa with ancient settlement ruins dating back to Neolithic age. Excavation of this site was conducted by the Archaeological Department, Government of India, in 1961. The ancient utensils and other artefacts discovered, signifying the ancient civilization, have been kept in the National Museum, Calcutta (Kolkatta).

Burza Hama ruins are unique and first of its kind in Kashmir and elsewhere in the country and the world. This civilisation has been segregated into four phases by the archaeologists signifying mud settlements, earthen utensils, bone utensils & tools, raw bricks. The fourth & last segment meets with ancient history which is earlier to the Harwan Budhist settlement ruins of Srinagar. On stones tiles some carvings depict Hangul (Kashmir Deer) game shooting with Sun, indicating day time game.

Treks in Kashmir

• Kolahoi glacier
• Vaishno Sar
• Gangabal
• Holy Amarnath
• Tarsar Marsar
• Naranag- Bandipur, (via Gangabal)
• Sonamarg - Pahalgam
• Water trek to Manasbal via Anchar

Itineraries available on request.

Besides there are many other places which one can see in Kashmir, just let us know your interests and we will have an tailor made itinerary for you.

VAISHNO DEVI
1 hour drive from Jammu via Katra, this temple town over-hangs the cliffs about Tawi where millions journey to pay homage at the cave shrine.One of several surprises in the sanctuary of Gods.

Dharamsala

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, could not have known in 1960 that the location he offered to Tibetan exiles had prolific Buddhist roots dating back 2,700 years. The Kangra Valley is rich in unexplored archaeological sites of great importance to understanding Indian Buddhism; in 635 AD the Chinese monk-pilgrim, Hsuan Tsang recorded fifty monasteries with around 2,000 monks in this fertile region. But, a century later, Buddhism and all its sites were eliminated from the valley during an upsurge of Brahminical revivalism.
Dharamsala's earliest history is obscured by time and the successive invasions that swept through all North India. But it is known that the original tribes identified with Kangra's hilly tracts were Dasas, a warrior people, later assimilated by Aryans.
In 1849 the British posted a regiment in Dharamsala, but the place was not to remain a military cantonment for long. By 1855 it was a small but flourishing hill station and the administrative headquarters of Kangra District, which had been annexed by the British in 1848. The two main areas at the time were McLeod Gunj, named after Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, David McLeod, and Forsyth Gunj, named after a divisional commissioner.
Lord Elgin, Viceroy of British India and a former Governor-General of Canada, loved the forests of Dharamsala so much that, before dying here in 1863, he asked to be buried in the graveyard of St. John's Church in the Wilderness. Had he lived longer, Dharamsala might have become the summer capital of British India.
The name Sir Francis Younghusband - leader of British India's fateful incursion to Lhasa in 1904 also has Dharamsala connections. In 1856 his parents, Clara Shaw and John Younghusband, lived in a bungalow in the pine forest above St. John's Church and later bought land in the Kangra Valley to pioneer a tea plantation. Clara's brother, Robert Shaw, was a renowned explorer of Central Asia and an early Kangra tea planter.
But in 1905 a severe earthquake changed the face of Dharamsala. Many buildings collapsed and the whole settlement, once ravaged, was never re-occupied. The local officials advised residents to move to the safety of Lower Dharamsala which at that time comprised little more than a jail, a police station and a cobbler's shop. The pine-clad hillsides continued to flourish as a quiet health resort for the "sahibs" and "memsahibs" of British India.
The visits of "sahibs" and "memsahibs" ended when India achieved independence in 1947. McLeod Gunj then quickly became a sleepy, undistinguished village until His Holiness the Dalai Lama, fleeing persecution in his homeland, made it his home in exile and moved the Central Tibetan Administration, in effect the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, from Mussoorie to Dharamsala in 1960. Today, more than 8,000 Tibetan refugees consider Dharamsala their second home.
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Dharamsala is situated in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It lies on a spur of the Dhauladhar range, the Pir Panjal region of the Outer Himalayas; and commands majestic views of the mighty Dhauladhar ranges above, and the Kangra Valley below. Dhauladhar means "white ridge" and this breathtaking, snow-capped range rises out of the Kangra Valley to a height of 5,200 meters (17,000 feet).
The Kangra Valley is a wide, fertile plain, criss-crossed by low hills. The scenery touched the heart of a British official who wrote: "No scenery, in my opinion, presents such sublime and delightful contrasts. Below lies the plain, a picture of rural loveliness and repose... Turning from this scene of peaceful beauty, the stern and majestic hills confront us... above all are wastes of snow to rest on.Dharamsala is divided into two very different parts. Kotwali Bazaar and areas further down the valley (at the average height of 1,250 metres) are called Lower Dharamsala, while McLeod Gunj (at the height of nearly 1,800 metres) and surrounding areas are known as Upper Dharamsala. McLeod Gunj is nine kilometers by bus route and four kilometres by taxi route up the hill from Kotwali Bazaar. While inhabitants of Lower Dharamsala are almost all Indians, McLeod Gunj is primarily a Tibetan area. McLeod Gunj is surrounded by pine, Himalayan oak, rhododendron and deodar forests. The main crops grown by local Indians in the valleys below McLeod Gunj are rice, wheat and tea. Today, streams of Tibetan refugees from all over the world flock to McLeod Gunj to receive blessings and teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Western and Indian tourists and scholars come here to see the rebirth of an ancient and fascinating civilization. The high altitude and cool weather contribute physically to this recreation of the original Tibetan environment. Dharamsala pulsates with the sights and sounds of old Tibet. Though certainly more modern, life is basically Tibetan in character. Shops strung out along the narrow streets of McLeod Gunj sell traditional Tibetan arts and handicrafts and the aroma of Tibetan dishes lingers in the air.

Spring

Snow Bridge