Castle Map

Palace

Shey Palace

India

Heritage status
Monument of National Importance
Location
Leh district
Coordinates
34.07583°, 77.63528°
Links
Wikimedia Commons
Open on the map →Wikipedia ↗
Shey Palace in India
Photo: Kmohankar · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

Shey Monastery or Gompa or the Shey Palace are complex structures located on a hillock in Shey, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) to the south of Leh in Ladakh, northern India on the Leh-Manali road. Shey was the summer capital of Ladakh in the past. It contains a huge Shakyamuni Buddha statue. It is the second largest Buddha statue in Ladakh.

The original palace, now in ruins, was built near the Shey village by Lhachen Palgyigon, the king of Ladakh (then called Maryul), in the 10th century. The Moghul noble Mirza Haidar Dughlat stayed here during his invasion of Ladakh in the 16th century.

The later Shey Palace and Monastery were also built in 1655 on the instructions of Deldan Namgyal, in memory of his father, Sengge Namgyal, below the first palace. The monastery is noted for its giant copper with gilded gold statue of a seated Shakyamuni Buddha. The statue is so named since Buddha was the sage (muni) of the Sakya people who resided in the Himalayan foothills and their capital was Kapilvastu. It is said to be the second largest such statue in Ladakh.

Text adapted from “Shey Monastery” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Shey Palace ranks #6,312 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #204 of the 238 mapped in India. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 923 times in the last 60 days, more than 53% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how India compares in the castle statistics.

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