Kashmir & Ladakh
This ancient Buddha carving is an impressive sight and all the more appealing for being unknown to most visitors. It's hardly a five-minute walk off the Barsoo road following the footpath that contours around to Khartse Khar's small village school. The once-fortified lower section of the village is fascinating in itself.
A J&K SRTC bus leaves Kargil for Barsoo via Khartse Khar (₹50) at 3pm daily, returning around 7am.
25.34 MILES
Set in a sharp mountain gully 11km northeast of Kargil, the tumbledown ghost village of Hundarman is a remarkable sight. Rocky crags tower above, a…
21.47 MILES
Celebrating Kargil's pre-1947 role as a Silk Route trading centre, this small, intriguing private museum illustrates the caravan trade to Central Asia…
21.85 MILES
Mulbekh is overlooked by the impregnable site of King Tashi Namgyal’s 18th-century castle, high above the road. Burnt during an 1835 raid, the castle has…
28.6 MILES
Amarnath's natural stone lingam becomes opalescently encrusted with ice and is believed to wax and wane with the phases of the moon. Seen as symbolising…
22.29 MILES
Mulbekh's foremost sight is a 1000-year-old Maitreya Buddha relief, carved into an 8m fang of rock. It's right by the roadside, rising through the middle…
19.14 MILES
Built memorably into a cliff face, little Shargol Gompa's minuscule prayer chamber is lit by a single flickering butter lamp. To access the site from the…
26.69 MILES
Seen from Rangdum village, 5km west, this small, slightly raised monastery looks like a tiny island floating above the valley floor. Postcards are sold to…
23.71 MILES
The Yurbaltak Buddha figure makes an appealing half-day trip from Kargil. It's the smallest and most eroded of the region's Buddha statues but getting…
19.14 MILES
Built memorably into a cliff face, little Shargol Gompa's minuscule prayer chamber is lit by a single flickering butter lamp. To access the site from the…
2. Munshi Aziz Bhat Serai Museum
21.47 MILES
Celebrating Kargil's pre-1947 role as a Silk Route trading centre, this small, intriguing private museum illustrates the caravan trade to Central Asia…
21.85 MILES
Mulbekh is overlooked by the impregnable site of King Tashi Namgyal’s 18th-century castle, high above the road. Burnt during an 1835 raid, the castle has…
22.29 MILES
Mulbekh's foremost sight is a 1000-year-old Maitreya Buddha relief, carved into an 8m fang of rock. It's right by the roadside, rising through the middle…
23.71 MILES
The Yurbaltak Buddha figure makes an appealing half-day trip from Kargil. It's the smallest and most eroded of the region's Buddha statues but getting…
24.8 MILES
This intriguing little monastery includes troglodyte cell rooms tucked improbably into pillars of unstable-looking composite rocks. It's backed against a…
25.34 MILES
Set in a sharp mountain gully 11km northeast of Kargil, the tumbledown ghost village of Hundarman is a remarkable sight. Rocky crags tower above, a…
26.69 MILES
Seen from Rangdum village, 5km west, this small, slightly raised monastery looks like a tiny island floating above the valley floor. Postcards are sold to…