It is picturesquely situated on a little hill in the valley,[1] in Likir village near the Indus River about 9.5 kilometres (5.9 mi) north of the Srinigar to Leh highway.

[2] It belongs to the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism and was established in 1065 by Lama Duwang Chosje, at the command of the fifth king of Ladakh, Lhachen Gyalpo (Lha-chen-rgyal-po).

This statement is found in exactly the same words as we find in the rGyal-rabs"[8] Eighteen generations later King bDe-legs-rnam-rgyal reigned, but his name has been erased from the inscription because he embraced Islam after the battle of Basgo in 1646–1647.

The lower part of the chorten is a square room which a lama said was the earliest temple at Likir, and was already there when King Lha-chenrgyal-po built the monastery.

Lachen Gyalpo,  the fifth king of Ladakh is said to have offered to Lama Duwans Chosje, a great master of meditation, the land for building a monastery in 1065.

The Du-Khang (Assembly Hall) contains Mar.ime.zat, Shakyamuni, and Maitreya (Buddhas of the past, present and future) an imposing statue of Tsong.Kha.pa and Kangyur and Tangyur.

In Nyenes Khang are life-like paintings of the Tung-Shah (the thirty-five confessional Buddhas and Nas.Tan.Chu.Tuk, sixteen arahats) The Gon.Khang houses the statue of Se.Ta.Pa an imposing protective deity of the monastery and Yamantaka.

Leh It is the seat of the Ngari Rinpoche [fr], the present emanation of the younger brother of the Dalai Lama.