Sankoo

Sankoo is a town in the Kargil district of the union territory of Ladakh in India. The township is 42km away towards south from Kargil City. Sankoo is located in a bowl-shaped valley drained by large tributary streams of the Suru River, and the Nakpochu river. As the richest flourishing and most verdant valley throughout the entire region of Ladakh, the village of Sankoo Valley is known as the Ladakh's own Gulmarg ("meadow of flowers"). It is located in the Sankoo tehsil.[2]

Sankoo
Village
A lush green barley field at Kausar, Sankoo
Sankoo Show map of Ladakh Sankoo Show map of India
Coordinates: 34.28°N 75.94°E / 34.28; 75.94
Country	India
Union Territory	Ladakh
District	Kargil
Tehsil	Sankoo
Languages
• Official	Balti, Purgi, Urdu
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	194301[1]

Sankoo is an upcoming township with a small bazaar (42 km south of Kargil) and numerous villages around. Dense plantations of poplars, willows, myricaria and wild roses fill the bowl-shaped valley, giving it the ambience of a man-made forest tucked within the mountain ramparts. Two side valleys drained by large tributary streams of the Suru river, the Kartse flowing from the east and the Nakpochu descending from the west, open up on either side of the expanse. Sankoo (42 km), the next major expanse of the Suru Valley, is a picturesque township surrounded with numerous villages and colourful rocky mountains all around.

Sankoo is very popular among local picnickers who throng the area from Kargil town and other places. Locally it is also popular as a place of pilgrimage to the ancient shrine of a Muslim scholar-saint, Sayed Mir Hashim, who was specially invited from Kashmir for imparting religious teachings of the region's Buddhist ruler, Thi-Namgyal of the Suru principality, following his conversion to Islam during the `16th century. The shrine is situated in the village of Karpo-Kharon the outskirts of Sankoo where the Chief had his summer palace.[3]

Summers are warm in Sankoo but the winters are extremely cold and harsh. Temperatures are most comfortable in April and September, so this is the best time to visit Sankoo.[4]

For the large population, there is only one CHC hospital and One Higher secondary school (Aga Syed Haider Rizvi Memorial Higher Secondary School). Some of the famous Villages of Sankoo are Sangra, Stakpa, Umba, Lankarchay, Thasgam, Barso, Farona and Nagma Kousar