Zanskar has a handful of large monasteries, a great many small ones, and villages that are inseparable from both. Almost every settlement of any size has a gompa above it, and the monastery year and the farming year run on the same calendar.
The main monasteries
Karsha
The largest monastery in Zanskar, on the slope above the Stod valley across from Padum — a stack of whitewashed buildings that is visible from a long way down the valley. Gelug order. It is the easiest of the great monasteries to reach, which makes it the usual first stop for anyone arriving in Padum, and its summer festival is the biggest gathering in the valley.
Phuktal
Built around the mouth of a natural cave high above the Tsarap, in the Lungnak valley about 52 km south-east of Padum. Founded in the early fifteenth century by Jangsem Sherap Zangpo, a disciple of Tsongkhapa, and home to around seventy monks. Until recently it could only be reached on foot; a road now comes far enough up the valley that the final approach is a two to three hour walk from Purney. More about Phuktal.
Stongdey
On the road between Padum and Zangla, high on a spur with a long view down the valley. Gelug order, and generally counted as the second largest monastic community in Zanskar. It is a good half-day from Padum and much quieter than Karsha.
Bardan
Drukpa order, on a rock outcrop above the Lungnak river a short drive south of Padum. Small, dramatic, and usually on the way to somewhere else — most people passing towards Phuktal stop here.
Sani
West of Padum in the Stod valley, unusual for being on flat ground rather than a crag, and for its ancient stupa. Drukpa order. Its summer festival includes masked dances and draws people from the whole western end of the valley.
Villages
The villages are where the valley actually happens. Most are small — a cluster of flat-roofed mud-brick houses, poplar and willow planted for timber, irrigation channels cut along the contour, and barley fields stepping down to the river. Roofs are stacked with brushwood and dung through the summer: that is next winter's fuel, and how full the roof is tells you how the year has gone.
- Padum — the administrative centre, about seven hundred people, where almost everyone arrives.
- Zangla — 32 km north-east of Padum, at 3,931 m, with a ruined fort on the ridge. Our village.
- Purney — the junction below which the Kargyag and the Tsarap become the Lungnak, and the road-head for Phuktal.
- Shadey — an isolated settlement in the upper Tsarap, reached on both of our trekking routes from opposite directions.
- Cha, Testa, Purney, Anmu — the string of small villages along the Lungnak that keep the walking route through the valley possible.
Visiting a monastery. Walk clockwise around chortens and mani walls. Ask before photographing inside a temple or during a ceremony, and accept a no. Take your shoes off where others do. A small donation in the box is normal and welcome. If you are not sure, watch what the Zanskari people around you do and copy it — that is what we do too.