Leh Palace

Leh Palace, also known as Lachen Palkar Palace, is a former royal palace overlooking the city of Leh in Ladakh, India. It was constructed circa 1600 AD by Sengge Namgyal. The palace was abandoned when Dogra forces took control of Ladakh in the mid-19th century and forced the royal family to move to Stok Palace.

It is nine storeys high; the upper floors accommodated the royal family, while the lower floors held stables and store rooms. Much of the palace is in deteriorated condition, and little survives of its interior decorations.

The Palace Museum holds a rich collection of jewellery, ornaments, ceremonial dresses and crowns. Tibetan thangka or paintings, which are more than 450 years old, with intricate designs still retain the bright colours derived from crushed and powdered gems and stones. Structures around the palace's base include the prominent Namgyal Stupa (Tibetan: གཙུག་གཏོར་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་མ།, Sanskrit: Uṣṇīṣavijayā), the colourfully muraled Chandazik Gompa (Tibetan: སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས།, Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर/Avalokiteśvara) and the 1430 Chamba Lhakhang (Tibetan: བྱམས་པ་མགོན་པོ།, Sanskrit:मैत्रेय/Maitreya Buddha) with medieval mural fragments located between the inner and outer walls.

The palace is being restored by the Archaeological Survey of India. The palace is open to the public and the roof provides panoramic views of Leh and the surrounding areas.

The annual Dosmoche festival is celebrated around February in Leh Palace as well as the Likir and Diskit monasteries.

Leh Palace Ropeway, proposed in 2022 as part of Parvatmala, is in the planning stage.

Text adapted from “Leh Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Leh Palace ranks #1,110 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #42 of the 172 mapped in India. Founded c. 1600, it is older than 32% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 718 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 4,334 times in the last 60 days, more than 82% of the atlas. See how India compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗