Ambaran near Akhnoor, could well be home to the oldest Buddhist structure in Jammu and Kashmir. Dating back to the Kushana period, from 1st to 5th century BC, the site is said to have had a spoke wheel Buddhist stupa. Though in ruins now, the brick stupa seems to resemble the ones excavated at Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh. Excavations have led to the discovery of bases of stupas and votive stupas, and walls of a monastery, and important antiquities including a large number of decorative terracotta figurines, moulds of leaves and ornaments. The most significant has been the discovery of a Kushana period silver relic casket containing charred bones, suggesting the stupa here was a sharirika stupa (where body relics of great monks are kept in a casket). The casket also contained thin sheets of gold, silver and beads. A circular gold casket found inside the silver casket had small pieces of charred bones and probably a minute part of a tooth. The nearest major town is Akhnoor, which is around 30 km from Jammu city.
Dating back to nearly one thousand years, the monastery has strong Tibetan influence in its art and architecture.
Belonging to the Gelugpa order of Tibetan Buddhism, it is supposed to be one of the largest and the oldest monastery in Nubra valley.
Situated on the western banks of the Indus river, the Hemis monastery is one of the largest and most richly endowed monastery of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir.