Do you want to visit the most incredibly situated, let alone remote, monastery in Ladakh? Then put on your hiking boots. Only those on foot can get to Phuktal Monastery at 3,970 meters/13,024 feet. Phuktal is a 5km/3.1 mile hike in each direction just from Purne campgrounds.
Phugtal Monastery or Phugtal Gompa (often transliterated as Phuktal) is a monastery in south-eastern Zanskar, Ladakh in northern India.
Founded by Gangsem Sherap Sampo in the early 12th century, the monastery is a unique construction built into the cliff-side like a honeycomb. It is located on the mouth of a cave on the cliff face of a lateral gorge of a major tributary of the Lungnak (Lingti-Tsarap) River.
Home to about 70 monks the monastery has a library and prayer rooms. A stone tablet reminds of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös author of the first English-Tibetan dictionary who explored Ladakh and visited in 1826-27.