The foundation
The Alchi Choskhor, "religious enclave", lies on the south bank of the Indus in a village of fields and apricot trees. Local tradition attributes it to Rinchen Zangpo, the great translator of western Tibet, but inscriptions in the temples name Kalden Sherab, a monk of the Dro family, as founder of the assembly hall. The temples are generally dated from the late eleventh century to around 1200, though some scholars argue for later dates for the Sumtsek. Unlike most Ladakhi monasteries, Alchi is built on the valley floor, not on a hilltop, and it ceased to be an active monastery early; it is now looked after by monks from Likir.
The temples
The Dukhang, the assembly hall, has walls covered with mandalas, and over its entrance a painting of the wheel of life. The Sumtsek, "three-storeyed", is the most remarkable building. Its carved wooden façade has trefoil arches in the Kashmiri style. Inside, three giant clay figures of bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara, Maitreya and Manjushri, rise through the storeys, and their lower garments are painted with tiny scenes: palaces, pilgrimage places, and court life, which serve as a record of the textiles and buildings of the period. The upper walls carry mandalas and figures of the deities of the yoga tantras.
The paintings
Alchi's paintings are prized because the Buddhist art of Kashmir itself was almost entirely destroyed. The painters, who came from Kashmir or worked in its manner, used a refined line, rich colour and elaborate ornament. Among the best-known panels are scenes of a royal drinking party, with figures in Central Asian dress, and the many depictions of the goddess Prajnaparamita and of Green Tara. The textile patterns in the paintings show links with the Islamic world of Iran and Central Asia.
Alchi is the best preserved of a small group of Ladakhi temples painted in the same tradition. Mangyu, in a side valley a few kilometres away, and Sumda Chun, further south, have related paintings and clay sculpture and are thought to belong to the same period and workshops. Together they preserve a phase of Himalayan Buddhist art that has almost vanished elsewhere.
Conservation
The paintings survived because the buildings fell out of active use and were little altered. They have suffered from water and smoke, and from the growing numbers of visitors. Since the late twentieth century conservation teams from India and abroad have worked on the temples. Photography is not allowed inside. The site has been proposed for inscription as a World Heritage Site.
Further reading
- Snellgrove, David. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Serindia, 1987
- Huntington, Susan L. The Art of Ancient India. Weatherhill, 1985
- Williams, Paul. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. Routledge, 2008
See also
- Namgyal dynasty of Ladakh — The Namgyals ruled Ladakh from Leh from the fifteenth century until the Dogra conquest of 1842, and under Sengge Namgyal built the Leh palace and the great monasteries.
- Vajrayana — Vajrayana is the tantric development of Mahayana Buddhism, using mantra, visualisation, ritual and initiation to pursue buddhahood by an accelerated path, dominant in Tibet and Himalayan Buddhism.
- Kashmir — Kashmir is a Himalayan valley in the northwestern subcontinent whose early history encompasses successive Buddhist and Hindu dynasties, the distinct philosophical tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, and a 14th-century transition to Muslim rule under the Shah Mir dynasty.
This entry was last revised on 12 November 2026.