Alchi is part of the three villages (all in lower Ladakh region) which constitute the ‘Alchi group of monuments’; the other two villages adjoining Alchi are the Mangyu and Sumda Chun. The monuments in these three villages are stated to be of “unique style and workmanship’, but the Alchi monastic complex is the best known. No picture is allowed in the monasteries.
34°16'3" N 76°46'43" E
Wanla Gompa (Urdu:وانلا گومپا) is a historic Buddhist monastery on the ridge that crowns Wanla village in Ladakh, part of Indian-controlled Kashmir. Its small but impressively preserved three-storeyed Avalokitesvara temple is one of the earliest known Drigung Kagyu prayer chambers to have survived in Ladakh. Wanla is a sub-monastery of Lamayuru which provides a caretaker monk responsible for daily rituals and for granting access to the temple. The main image features Avalokitesvara in 11-headed ("Chuchigzhel") form. Along with a 1980s side building the monastery sits within the sparse remnants of a medieval castle whose construction is mentioned in Ladakhi chronicles as being by the Ladakhi King Lhachen Ngaglug (lHa-chen Ngag-lug), i.e. probably in the 12th century. The monastery was added in the heart of the castle in the 14th century. This timing adds to academic interest in Wanla since, as some writers have described, this was "an otherwise completely obscure period of Ladakh's history between the foundation of the Alchi group of monuments, the latest of which are to be attributed to the early 13th century, and the establishment of the Ladakhi kingdom in the early 15th century". The temple is currently being restored by the Achi Association.
