Tabo Monastery, founded in 996 CE, is often called the "Ajanta of the Himalayas" — a comparison that does justice to the extraordinary painted grottoes inside its nine temples. Unlike the cliff-top drama of Key or Dhankar, Tabo sits quietly at the valley floor, a cluster of mud-walled buildings that look almost organic against the earthen-coloured landscape. The exterior is unassuming. The interior is one of the great artistic treasures of Buddhist Asia.
The Golden Temple (Tsuglag Khang), the main assembly hall, contains murals, stucco sculpture, and painted mandalas dating back nearly a thousand years, with layers of later additions recording the monastery's evolving artistic tradition. The clay figurines in the shrines are extraordinarily refined, their faces serene and hands curved in precise mudras. The rock caves across the road from the main complex, cut into the hillside, were inhabited by monks as recently as the 20th century and contain early murals that predate the monastery buildings. The current Dalai Lama has visited twice and led initiations here; Tabo is considered one of the holiest sites in Tibetan Buddhism outside Tibet.