Kurjey Lhakhang,སྐུ་རྗེས་ ཡང་ན་ གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་གི་ ཞབས་རྗེས་ also known as the Kurjey Monastery, is located in the

Bumthang valley Bumthang Valley is the main inhabited valley in the Bumthang district of Bhutan. History Bumthang is one of the most beautiful and sacred valleys in Bhutan. The main town in the valley is Jakar. Bhutan's only brewery, brewing Red Panda wheat ...

in the

Bumthang district Bumthang District (Dzongkha: བུམ་ཐང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bum-thang rzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhag (districts) comprising Bhutan. It contains numerous temples and Buddhist sacred sites. The district is divide ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

. This is the final resting place of the

remains Remains or The Remains may refer to: Music *The Remains (band), a 1960s American rock band *The Ramainz, originally The Remains, a Ramones tribute band Albums * ''Remains'' (Alkaline Trio album), 2007 * ''Remains'' (Annihilator album), 1997 * ' ...

of the first three

Kings of Bhutan Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

. Also, a large tree behind one of the temple buildings is believed to be a terma that was left there by

Padmasambhava Padmasambhava ('Born from a Lotus'), also known as Guru Rinpoche ('Precious Guru'), was a legendary tantric Buddhist Vajracharya, Vajra master from Oddiyana. who fully revealed the Vajrayana in Tibet, circa 8th – 9th centuries... He is consi ...

Mythos

According to oral history, It is believed that Sindhuraja the ruler of Bumthang at the time was at war with another King called Nawchhe(Big nose) and in one of the battles with Nawchhe, Sindhu Raja had prayed for the help of the local deities but it was to no avail and Sindhu Raja had lost his son in the battle. Enraged, Sindhuraja decided to destroy all structures belonging to the local deities, angered by this Shelging Karpo the local deity stole the sog (life force) of Sindhuraja, and thus Sindhuraja fell ill due to this and the local healers were unable to do anything. At this point one of Sindhuraja's attendant sought help from

, who was residing in Nepal at the time, it is said that a cup of gold dust was offered to

, who then entered Bhutan through the route of Nabji Korphu via Mangde Chhu region. After he reached Bumthang, Sindhuraja promised him anything if he could cure him, Guru Rinpochhe then asked for Sindhuraja's daughter Moenmo Tashi Khuedron. Shelging karpo at the time was hiding inside his cave,

had to lure him out of the cave to subdue him.

started performing a

cham dance The cham dance () entry: 'cham. is a lively masked and costumed dance associated with some sects of Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhist festivals. The dance is accompanied by music played by bhikkhu, monks using traditional Tibetan musical instruments ...

, but although it managed to attract the attention of most local deities it failed to lure out Shelging Karpo. So he then asked Tashi Khuedron to fetch for a pale of water in a copper vase and this source of water which Tashi fetched water from became a source of sacred water calle
Kurje Drupchhu
which is considered to be sacred even now and believed to cure illnesses due to its holy powers. After Tashi Khuedron fetched the water,

used the reflection of the light of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

from the vase and directed it towards the cave that Shelging Karpo was hiding in, intrigued Shelging Karpo decided to step out and find out what this reflection was, and when he stepped out

immediately subdued and also had him be a protector of the

Dharma Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...

made Shelging Karpo return the sog of Sindhuraja and thus Sindhuraja was healed.

also meditated at the cave and thus left a print of his body on the cave which is why it is called Kurjey since you can see the imprint of

on the cave.Bhutan times, Last accessed July/2/2019
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Kurjey Lhakhang Complex

Kurje Lhakhang complex has three structures namely Guru Lhakhang, Sampa Lhundrup Lhakhang, and Ka Goen Phur Sum Lhakhang. The oldest temple, Guru Khakhang was built by king Sindhu Raja against a cave where Guru Rinpoche meditated and subdued the local deity, Shelging Karpo.

References

External links

History on Kurjey LhakangKurjey, a Cave where Guru Rinpoche left his Body Impression
{{Buddhist monasteries in Bhutan Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples in Bhutan