The Alchi monastery was probably founded in the 11th century.
Alchi is a village in the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is located on the banks of the Indus River, 70 km downstream from the capital Leh. The monastery of the same name is located in this village.
As early as the 8th century, individual Buddhist villages were destroyed in the wake of the Muslim invasion of India. During the Mugal invasion in 1197, the Buddhist University of Nalanda and almost all Buddhist monasteries in India were destroyed. In the immediate aftermath, Buddhism almost completely disappeared from the Indian heartland.
Only the monasteries of Alchi in Ladakh and Tabo in Spiti remained untouched. Unlike most Buddhist monasteries, Alchi is not prominently visible from afar on a mountainside. As monasteries were also destroyed north of Alchi in the Indus Valley, it was probably simply overlooked by the invaders. The style of the numerous wall paintings is therefore unique today. You will look in vain for comparable paintings in other monasteries built later.
Tabo, is located in the Indian region of Spiti, far away in the Indian Western Himalayas, where the Mughal invaders did not penetrate. Tabo Monastery has numerous architectural and iconographic features. However, there are no murals in Tabo comparable to those in Alchi.