From the archive record
Ancient hand-painted thangkas that were painted with vegetable dyes, and prayer flags inside this ancient Buddhist gompa in India. Dhankar Gompa is a Gompa, a Buddhist temple in the district of Lahaul and Spiti in India. It is situated at an elevation of 3,894 metres (12,774 feet) in the Spiti Valley between the towns of Kaza and Tabo. The complex is built on a 1000-foot (300-metre) high spur overlooking the confluence of the Spiti and Pin Rivers - one of the world's most spectacular settings for a gompa. Dhang or dang means cliff, and kar or khar means fort. Hence Dhangkar means fort on a cliff. Dhankar, like Key Monastery and Tangyud Monastery in Spiti, and Thiktse, Likir and Rangdum monasteries in Ladakh, was built as a fort monastery on the Central Tibetan pattern. It was reported to h