Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

1126 sites15 countries4 traditions30 centuries
Early medieval · Buddhist · India

Alchi Monastery

Alchi, Leh, Ladakh · 34.2170°, 77.1670°

Vairochana, Maitreya, Avalokiteshvara and ManjushriRinchen Zangpo era; later Gelug under LikirTibetan architecture with strong Kashmiri influence; three-storeyed Sumtseg with elaborate wood carving
Sacred since
958 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
late 10th-11th c. (Rinchen Zangpo tradition)
Rinchen Zangpo era; later Gelug under Likir

History & significance

A riverside temple complex holding some of the oldest surviving wall paintings in Ladakh, executed in a Kashmiri idiom that has vanished almost everywhere else. It is the best preserved of the foundations attributed to the translator Rinchen Zangpo.

Sthala katha — the legend

Tradition holds that of twenty-one scholars sent by the Tibetan lama-king Yeshe-O, only Rinchen Zangpo and one other survived to bring Buddhism back to the western Himalaya.

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Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Rinchen Zangpo era; later Gelug under Likir