Skiu (also Sku and Skyu) and Kaya (elev. 3500 m) are adjacent villages in the Markha River valley in

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The villages contain 9 and 12 households, respectively; the boundary between the villages is not clearly defined.Himalayan Homestay Treks map. Published by Snow Leopard Conservancy India and on sale in Leh, Ladakh. (Contact information: Ibex Hotel Complex, Fort Road, Leh, Ladakh, India. Tel 01982-250953. www.himalayan-homestays.com.) They lie within the

Hemis National Park Hemis National Park is a high-elevation national park in Ladakh, India. Globally famous for its snow leopards, it is believed to have the highest density of them in any protected area in the world. It is the only national park in India that is n ...

Wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

and vegetables are cultivated by villagers, who also harvest wild

seabuckthorn ''Hippophae'' is the genus of sea buckthorns, deciduous shrubs in the family Elaeagnaceae. The name sea buckthorn may be hyphenated to avoid confusion with the unrelated true buckthorns (''Rhamnus'', family Rhamnaceae). It is also referred to as ...

berries. Skiu and Kaya each have a Buddhist monastery (

gompa A Gompa or Gönpa ( "remote place", Sanskrit ''araṇya''), also known as ling (), is a Buddhist ecclesiastical fortification of learning, lineage and sādhanā that may be understood as a conflation of a fortification, a vihara and a universit ...

). The monastery at Skiu was constructed in the 11th century;

Rinchen Zangpo __NOTOC__ Lochen Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055; ), also known as Mahaguru, was a principal lotsawa or translator of Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Tibetan during the second diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet, variously called the New Translation School, ...

laid its foundation.

References

Villages in Leh tehsil {{Ladakh-geo-stub