Gandhola Monastery
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Gandhola Monastery (Gaṅdolā, also called Gondla, Gondhla, Kundlah, or Guru Ghantal Gompa) is about before
Keylong Kyelang (also spelled Keylong) is a town and the administrative centre of the Lahaul and Spiti district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, north of Manali via Atal Tunnel and from the Indo-Tibetan border. It is located along the Mana ...
in
Lahaul and Spiti district The Lahaul and Spiti district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh consists of the two formerly separate districts of Lahaul () and Spiti (; or ). The present administrative centre is Kyelang in Lahaul. Before the two districts were mer ...
,
Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
, India on the road from
Manali, Himachal Pradesh Manali is a town, near Kullu town in Kullu district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is situated in the northern end of the Kullu Valley, formed by the Beas River. The town is located in the Kullu district, approximately north o ...
. It is located on a hill above Tupchiling Village at the sacred junction of the Chandra and Bhaga rivers, which together form the Chandrabhaga or
Chenab River The Chenab River () is a major river that flows in India and Pakistan, and is one of the 5 major rivers of the Punjab region. It is formed by the union of two headwaters, Chandra and Bhaga, which rise in the upper Himalayas in the Lahaul regi ...
. The village is at 3,160 m (10,370 ft) and is famous for its 7-storey tower fort.


History

The monastery is said to have been founded by
Padmasambhava Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...
in the 8th century. It is now connected with the
Drukpa Lineage The Drukpa Kagyu (), or simply Drukpa, sometimes called either Dugpa or " Red Hat sect" in older sources,
of the Kagyu school of
Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
, but its history long precedes the formation of that sect. According to local tradition and also the terma, the ''
Padma The Padma ( bn, পদ্মা ''Pôdma'') is a major river in Bangladesh. It is the main distributary of the Ganges, flowing generally southeast for to its confluence with the Meghna River near the Bay of Bengal. The city of Rajshahi is sit ...
bka'i thang'', discovered in 1326 in the
Yarlung Valley The Yarlung Valley is formed by Yarlung Chu, a tributary of the Tsangpo River in the Shannan Prefecture in the Tibet region of China. It refers especially to the district where Yarlung Chu joins with the Chongye River, and broadens out into a la ...
by Urgyan Lingpa, the site was associated with Padmasambhava. But the site was a Buddhist establishment even earlier than that: A chased copper goblet dated to the first century BCE was found here in 1857 by a Major Hay and is considered to be evidence of Buddhist monks' cells being located in a cave monastery at that time. The frieze on the vase denotes a chariot procession and is considered one of the oldest examples of metalwork to be decorated in this way in India. Known as the Kulu Vase, it is now kept in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. A damaged marble head of
Avalokiteśvara In Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर, IPA: ) is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He has 108 avatars, one notable avatar being Padmapāṇi (lotus bearer). He is variably depicted, ...
also found here, is kept in the Guru Ghantal Monastery itself, and is claimed to date back to the time of
Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...
in the second century. This seems to be the only monastery in the region other than
Sani Monastery Sani Monastery (also written Sanee), Sa-ni- ''tshog is located next to the village of Sani where the Stod Valley broadens into the central plain of Zanskar in Ladakh, northern India. It is about 6 km to the northwest of the regional centr ...
in
Zanskar Zanskar, Zahar (locally) or Zangskar, is a tehsil of Kargil district, in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The administrative centre is Padum (former Capital of Zanskar). Zanskar, together with the neighboring region of Ladakh, was brie ...
which has a history which is claimed to go back to the era of the Kushan Empire. There is also a black stone image of the goddess Vajreśvarī Devī (), and a wooden statue of the Buddha said to have been installed by the monk
Rinchen Zangpo __NOTOC__ Lochen Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055; ), also known as Mahaguru, was a principal lotsawa or translator of Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Tibetan during the second diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet, variously called the New Translation School, ...
(958-1055), a famous
lotsawa Lotsawa () is a Tibetan word used as a title to refer to the native Tibetan translators, such as Vairotsana, Rinchen Zangpo, Marpa Lotsawa, Tropu Lotsawa Jampa Pel and others, who worked alongside Indian scholars or panditas to translate Budd ...
(translator of Sanskrit Buddhist texts). The monastery was originally probably a larger complex of purely Indian style of which nothing now remains. The present structure is two-storied, 17.3 x 11.6 metres facing the northwest. The Assembly Hall or is on the ground floor. In 1959 the monastery underwent extensive repairs and a small pagoda roof of Kangra slates was added in a rather haphazard manner, which is surrounded by the mud roof which covers the monks' cells and kitchen on the second floor. The monastery has distinctive wooden (as opposed to clay) idols of Padmasambhava, Brijeshwari Devi and several other lamas. Gandhola, like all the Drukpa monasteries in
Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu ...
and Lahaul and Spiti, owes allegiance to the
12th Gyalwang Drukpa The 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, Jigmet Pema Wangchen (, born 1963), is the head of the Drukpa Lineage school, which is one of the independent Sarma (new) schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In Drukpa, druk means 'dragon' which is a symbol of love and peace. ...
, abbot of
Hemis Monastery Hemis Monastery is a Himalayan Buddhist monastery (''gompa'') of the Drukpa Lineage, in Hemis, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, it was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honourin ...
in Ladakh, who, in turn, owes allegiance to the head of the order in
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
. Gandhola is also famous for its seven story fort with alternating layers of stone and timber, which was once the seat of the local ṭhākur or chieftain, but is no longer occupied. It is a walk from the village of Tupchilling, in which the monastery is set.Singh (2007), p. 339. it was built by Raja Man Singh, the ruler of the Kulu Kingdom in the early 1700s as a castle for the local ''ṭhākur''.


Gallery

File:Gandhola Gompa altar.jpg, Gandhola Gompa
altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...
File:Gandhola Thakur's fort.jpg, Gandhola Ṭhākur's seven-storey tower fort File:Ghandola Gompa door.jpg, Ghandola Gompa door. File:Gandhola Monastery - Padmasambhava statue.jpg,
Padmasambhava Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...
statue - Gandhola Monastery. File:Kulu Vase - BM.JPG, Kulu Vase, discovered in the Monastery, now displayed in the British Museum File:Guru Rinpoche statue - Gondhola.jpg, A small statue of Guru Rinpoche/Padmasambhava statue at Gandhola in 2010.


Footnotes


References

* Handa, O. C. (1987). ''Buddhist Monasteries in Himachal Pradesh''. Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi. . *Kapadia, Harish. (1999). ''Spiti: Adventures in the Trans-Himalaya''. Second Edition. Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi. . * Janet Rizvi. (1996). ''Ladakh: Crossroads of High Asia''. Second Edition. Oxford University Press, Delhi. . * Cunningham, Alexander. (1854). ''LADĀK: Physical, Statistical, and Historical with Notices of the Surrounding Countries''. London. Reprint: Sagar Publications (1977). *Francke, A. H. (1977). ''A History of Ladakh''. (Originally published as, ''A History of Western Tibet'', (1907). 1977 Edition with critical introduction and annotations by S. S. Gergan & F. M. Hassnain. Sterling Publishers, New Delhi. *Francke, A. H. (1914, 1926). ''Antiquities of Indian Tibet''. Two Volumes. Calcutta. 1972 reprint: S. Chand, New Delhi. *Rose, H. A., et al. (1911). ''Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North West Frontier Province''. Reprint 1990. Asian Educational Services. . * Sarina Singh, et al. ''India''. (2007). 12th Edition. Lonely Planet. . {{Buddhist monasteries in Himachal Pradesh Buddhist monasteries in Himachal Pradesh 996 establishments Drukpa Kagyu monasteries and temples Buddhism in Lahaul and Spiti district 10th-century establishments in India Buildings and structures in Lahaul and Spiti district