Locals turning large Prayer Wheel at Likir Monastery

Himalayan India

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June 22nd 2008
Friday 20 June Today we drove to Alchi 70km from Leh over a sandy dessert area with barren mountains on all sides. The road was being repaired in many areas, a perpetual job, which meant diversions into the surrounding dessert over even bumpier surfaces. We made a detour to visit the 12th Century Likir Monastery in a green valley set up above the Indus valley, with a 74ft gold painted stat ... read more

Asia » India » Jammu & Kashmir » Ladakh » Leh

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The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab in... ... read more