BOY IN MONASTERY OF LADAKH Editorial Image

Tibetan Buddhism is one of three major forms of Buddhism, in terms of regional culture as well as canonical language. Like other forms of Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist tradition claims continuity with the teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha in India. After the ninth-century collapse of the Tibetan empire, a scion of the royal house called Nyima-Gon founded the first Ladakh dynasty. The region became culturally and demographically Tibetanized. Many of Ladakh's best-known monasteries and palaces were built by the Namgyal Dynasty during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.