Photos

Klu-kkhyil (meaning 'water spirits') Gompa (monastery) is located at Likir - small town in Ladakh, India. The monastery was first built in the 14th century and rebuilt 200 year ago. The monastery got its name from the belief that it was encircled by the bodies of two great serpent spirits, Nanda and Taksako. This monastery belongs to the Yellow Hat (Gelugspa) order of Ladakhi Buddhism. This monastery currently has a twenty-five foot tall gold-covered Buddha statue - seen at the right side of the buildings here. An earlier post shows the close-up of the statue. The monks at Likir also maintain the complex at Alchi, which was abandoned as a place of worship centuries ago, but remains among the earliest surviving gompas in the Ladakh region.

Likir is located at a distance of 52 km from Leh off the Leh-Srinagar highway.