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Alchi, Leh, Ladakh · 34.2170°, 77.1670°
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.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
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.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Rinchen Zangpo era; later Gelug under Likir
Answers only from cited records
Opening the line…