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

Markha River (India)

The Markha River is a river in Ladakh, India. It is a tributary of the Zanskar River. The Markha Valley is the most popular trekking route in Ladakh. On top of the valley you can find the Kang Yatze, a mountain.-External links:...

 valley in Ladakh

Ladakh

Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The villages contain 9 and 12 households, respectively; the boundary between the villages is not clearly defined.

Wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

 and vegetables are cultivated by villagers, who also harvest wild seabuckthorn berries.

Skiu and Kaya each have a Buddhist monastery (gompa

Gompa

Gompa and ling are Buddhist ecclesiastical fortifications of learning, lineage and sadhana , located in Tibet, India, Nepal, and Bhutan...

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

Rinchen Zangpo

Rinchen Zangpo , also known as Lha Lama Yeshe O'd or Mahaguru, was a principal lotsawa or translator of Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Tibetan during the second diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet . He was a student of the famous Indian master, Atisha. His associates included Legpai Sherab...

laid its foundation.