Thikse Monastery

Thikse Monastery is a twelfth-storey complex of white and red-ochre buildings stacked dramatically on a hillock in the Indus Valley, about 19 kilometres east of Leh. The monastery is often compared to the Potala Palace in Lhasa for its tiered silhouette rising from the valley floor. Its upper shrine houses a 15-metre-tall Maitreya statue, and the rooftop affords panoramic views of the Indus Valley at dawn when low mist fills the valley below.