Gondhla (also called Gaṅdolā, Gandhola, Gondla, Kundlah) is a village in the

Lahaul and Spiti district The Lahaul and Spiti district is a high-altitude district in Himachal Pradesh, north India. This entirely mountainous district consists of two geographically distinct as well as formerly separate political-administrative units, called Lahaul ( ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

, India. It is located 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 ...

on the road from

Manali, Himachal Pradesh Manali () is a resort 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 ...

, and lies at 3,160 m (10,370 ft) above sea level. The village is famous for the Guru Ghantal monastery and the Gondhla fort. In former times, this village was the seat of the Thakurs of Gondhla, who ruled the valley of the

Chandra river The Chenab River is a major river 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, the Chandra and Bhaga, which rise in the upper Himalayas in the Lahaul region of Himac ...

in Lahaul at the behest of the Rajas of

Kullu Kullu () is a municipal council town that serves as the administrative headquarters of the Kullu district of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is located on the banks of the Beas River in the Kullu Valley about north of the airport ...

Historical sites

Guru Ghantal Monastery

The

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Arunachal Prades ...

monastery at Gondhla, locally known as the Guru Ghantal monastery, is said to have been founded 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 ...

in the 8th century. It is now connected with the

Drukpa Lineage The Drukpa or Drukpa Kagyu () lineage, sometimes called Dugpa in older sources, is a branch of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu school is one of the Sarma or "New Translation" schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Drukpa lineage w ...

of the

Kagyu The ''Kagyu'' school, also transliterated as ''Kagyü'', or ''Kagyud'' (), which translates to "Oral Lineage" or "Whispered Transmission" school, is one of the main schools (''chos lugs'') of Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan (or Himalayan) Buddhism. ...

school of Tibetan Buddhism, but its history long precedes the formation of that sect. According to local tradition and also the terma, the ''

Padma The Padma () is a major river in Bangladesh. It is the eastern and 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 situated on the bank ...

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 autonomous region of China. It refers especially to the district where Yarlung Chu joins with the Chongye River, and broadens ...

by Urgyan Lingpa, the site was associated with Padmasambhava. Gondhla, like all the Drukpa monasteries in

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

and Lahaul and Spiti, owes allegiance to the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, abbot of

Hemis Monastery Hemis Monastery is a Himalayan Buddhist monastery ('' gompa'') of the Drukpa Lineage, in Hemis on the bank of the Indus River, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, it was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. T ...

in Ladakh, who, in turn, owes allegiance to the head of the order in

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 site was possibly a Buddhist establishment even earlier than the time of Padmasambhava, as some ancient artefacts are associated with it. A chased copper goblet dated to the first century BCE was found near the monastery in 1857 by a British officer called Major Hay. This goblet is considered to be evidence of Buddhist monk 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 Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. A damaged marble head of

Avalokiteśvara In Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara (meaning "the lord who looks down", International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ), also known as Lokeśvara ("Lord of the World") and Chenrezig (in Tibetan), is a Bodhisattva#Bhūmis (stages), tenth-level bodhisattva associ ...

also found here, is kept in the Guru Ghantal Monastery itself, and is claimed to date back to the time of

Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna (Sanskrit: नागार्जुन, ''Nāgārjuna''; ) was an Indian monk and Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhist Philosophy, philosopher of the Madhyamaka (Centrism, Middle Way) school. He is widely considered one of the most importa ...

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 cent ...

Zanskar Zanskar, Zahar (locally) or Zangskar, is the southwestern region of Kargil district in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The administrative centre of Zanskar is Padum. Zanskar, together with the rest of Ladakh, was briefly a part of the kin ...

which has a history which is claimed to go back to the era of the

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire (– CE) was a Syncretism, syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Afghanistan, Eastern Iran, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbe ...

. 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 title used to refer to the Nyingma's ''Ancient Translation School'' of 108 Tibetan translators, which include Vairotsana, Rinchen Zangpo, Marpa Lotsawa, Tropu Lotsawa Jampa Pel and many others. They worked alongside In ...

(translator of Sanskrit Buddhist texts). The monastery has distinctive wooden (as opposed to clay) idols of Padmasambhava, Brijeshwari Devi and several other lamas. Originally, the monastery was probably a larger complex of purely Indian style of which nothing now remains. In 1959 the monastery underwent extensive repairs and a small pagoda roof of Kangra slates was added in a rather haphazard manner. The monastery got severely damaged in the 1975 Kinnaur earthquake, and was subsequently rebuilt with stone masonry, cement mortar, and CGI sheets.

Gondhla fort

Gondhla is also famous for its seven-story tower fort, which serves as the residence for the Thakurs of Gondhla. In earlier times, the Thakurs of Gondhla were the viceroys of the Kullu

Raja Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian subcontinent, Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. T ...

s in the Tinan valley of Lahaul, a region formerly also known as the 'Rangloi ilaqa'. Tinan is the Lahuli name for the valley of the Chandra river, and includes all villages from Khoksar upto Tandi at the confluence of the Chandra and Bhaga rivers. The tower is built in the Kathkuni style of

Pahadi Pahari or Pahadi may refer to: * Pahari language, the name of several languages and dialects of South Asia * Pahari people (Nepal), an ethnic group of Nepal * Pahari people, a cover term for many Northern Indo-Aryan speaking groups of Uttarakhand ...

architecture, with alternating layers of stone and timber. According to some sources, the Gondhla fort was built around 1700 A.D. by Raja Man Singh of Kullu (who ruled over 1688-1719), after he married the daughter of Gondhla's Thakur. But according to M.S. Randhawa, local tradition held that the fort was built much earlier by Thakur Rattan Pal, who was believed to have migrated from Bir in Kangra to Gondhla and became the feudal lord of this area. Randhawa also noted that the timber used in the Gondhla fort was

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae * Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona ...

, which had been sourced from the forest of Dhungri in Manali, and had been transported over the

Rohtang Pass Rohtang Pass (Rohtang , literally meaning "pile of corpses"Polgreen, Lydia. ''New York Times''. Accessed 31 July 2010.) is a high mountain pass (elevation ) on the eastern end of the Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas around from Manali, Himac ...

. Over 1929-32, the Russian artist

Nicholas Roerich Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (), better known as Nicholas Roerich (; October 9, 1874 – December 13, 1947), was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, philosopher, and public figure. In his youth he was influenced by Russ ...

spent summers in Lahaul, and among other subjects, made paintings on the Gondhla fort. The fort is now in disuse, but stores old weaponry, furniture, and many holy objects, such as

thangka A ''thangka'' (; Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ་; Nepal Bhasa: पौभा) is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, silk appliqué, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, or mandala. Thangkas are traditionally kept unframed and rolled ...

scriptures Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

, and family deities of the Thakurs of Gondhla.

Gallery

File:Gandhola Gompa altar.jpg, Gondhla Gompa

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

File:Gandhola Thakur's fort.jpg, GondhlaṬhākur's seven-storey tower fort File:Ghandola Gompa door.jpg, Gondhla Gompa door. File:Gandhola Monastery - Padmasambhava statue.jpg,

statue - Gondhla 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 Gondhla 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. . {{coord, 32, 30, 34, N, 77, 01, 10, E, display=title, region:IN_type:city Buddhist monasteries in Himachal Pradesh Drukpa Kagyu monasteries and temples Buddhism in Lahaul and Spiti district Buildings and structures in Lahaul and Spiti district Forts in Himachal Pradesh Forts in India Villages in Lahaul and Spiti district