The Gurdwara Pathar Sahib is a gorgeous looking Gurdwara constructed 25 miles away from the city of Leh. The Gurudwara was built in the memory of the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak. The Gurudwara is situated right on the Leh-Kargil highway at an altitude of about 12000 feet above the sea level.
The Gurudwara is exactly five centuries old and was constructed in the year 1517. The Gurudwara houses a holy rock which has a very interesting origin story. During the year 1970, when the highway was being constructed, the workers came across a great big rock with Buddhist engravings in the middle of the path. They tried to move it with a bulldozer, but it just didn’t budge. Instead, the bulldozer broke down from all the effort. Later, the local Lamas who came to the site recognized the rock and told the workers it’s backstory. It was apparently the rock on which Guru Nanak had rested on his way to Punjab from Srinagar. Hearing this, the army was brought in, who later managed to shift the rock to its current location and built a Gurudwara around it. The Indian Army still maintains the Gurudwara to this date.
Sikhs and Buddhists alike throng to the temple to pay their respects to rock which once seated the Great Sikh Guru. Traveling through the Leh-Kargil highway with its breathtaking scenery alone is an excuse to visit this beautiful shrine.
