Sani monastery, possibly the oldest monastery in Ladakh & Zanskar, is associated with Naropa & Padmasambhava.
If you drive to Zanskar from Kargil and the Suru valley you'll come to Sani about half an hour before you arrive at the town of Padum, the capital of Zanskar. The monastery is on the right side of the road whereas the lake with the huge statue of Padmasambhava is on the left. Padmasambhava, known throughout the Himalaya regions as Guru Rinpoche, is thought to have meditated here in the 8th Century. You enter the walled courtyard via a gateway chorten.
The main feature of Sani is the Kanika chorten which is said variously to date back to the 2nd and 7th century. The name Kanika implies it is from the 2nd century Kushan era and named from the emperor Kanishka. The chorten is at the rear of the gompa and partly surrounded by a recently restored kora walkway; hemmed in somewhat by a tree and outbuildings it is hard to photograph.
A rough cloistered passageway with a few prayer wheels allows you to walk a kora around the temple before you enter the main dukhang (prayer hall) where you see prayer books along the wall either side of a seated Buddha. The figure on a throne is a cardboard cut out of the Dalai Lama, an not uncommon sight in the monasteries of Ladakh. The Dalai Lama comes to Ladakh most years for his birthday in July and gives teachings at one of the moanasteries, so we can assume he has been to Sani. He gave teachings in Zanskar in 2022, the year when these photos were taken.
