At the far side of a wide, sun-blasted plain around two hours’ walk from Padum, Karsha Gompa is Zanskar’s largest Buddhist monastery. Dating back to at least the 10th century, it’s a jumble of whitewashed blocks rising almost vertically up a red rock mountain cliff. Concrete steps lead to the monastery’s upper cloister and prayer hall with its cracked old murals and wobbly wooden columns. It’s a great vantage point from which to survey Karsha village’s old-fashioned homes, barley fields and threshing circles worked by dzo (cow-yak half-breed).
