Daktok Chokhor Pemaling was founded in the eighteenth century around a Padmasambhava meditation cave by a former Ladakhi court official named Kunga Puntsok, who was ordained by Katok Rigdzin Tsewang Norbu, The cave had been developed in the seventeenth century by Drubtob Pema Trinle, who had come to Ladakh to spread the Northern Treasures tradition. It operates as a branch of Dorje Drak Monastery in Tibet, the main seat of the Jangter tradition, and is the only major Nyingma monastery in Ladakh.