Shanti Stupa

Another one for the shutterbugs and the ones interested in culture and Buddhism. A starky white stupa (chorten) standing tall (4276 m) against a backdrop of the barren brown mountains, the Shanti Stupa is nothing less than fascinating. It was built by monks from Ladakh and Japan in 1983 to mark 2500 years of Buddhism in the region and promote world peace. The stupa houses Buddhist relics, placed here by the 14th Dalai Lama. A popular meditation site, it also has a simple cafe which makes up for the hard 15-minute climb up the stairs. Photographers must mark it in bold on their itinerary, for it’s a perfect place to shoot time lapse sequences.