Lamayuru or Yuru Monastery ( "Eternal Monastery") is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in

Lamayouro Lamayouro (also known as Lamayuru) is a village in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. The Lamayuru Monastery is located nearby. It is located in the Khalsi tehsil. The region is also referred to as ‘Moon Land’, due to its terrains resemblan ...

Leh district Leh district is a district in the union territory of Ladakh, India. With an area of 45,110 ''km'2'', it is the second largest district in the country smaller only to Kutch. It is bounded on the north by Gilgit-Baltistan's Kharmang and Gha ...

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 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is situated on the

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

Leh Leh () ( lbj, ) is the joint capital and largest city of Ladakh, a union territory of India. Leh, located in the Leh district, was also the historical capital of the Kingdom of Ladakh, the seat of which was in the Leh Palace, the former res ...

highway east of the

Fotu La , photo = Fotu.La.01.jpg , photo_caption = Fotu La , map = India Ladakh#India , map_caption = Location of Fotu La in Ladakh , elevation_m = 4108 , elevation_ref = , traversed = Srinagar-Leh highway , location = Ladakh, India , range = H ...

at a height of .

History

A. H. Francke states that, "according to popular tradition," it was originally the foremost

Bon ''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in t ...

monastery in Ladakh; its name means

sauwastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

and is a popular symbol in

for "eternity". Yungdrung is the name of the most popular school of Bon. It is currently affiliated with the

Drikung Kagyu Drikung Kagyü or Drigung Kagyü ( Wylie: 'bri-gung bka'-brgyud) is one of the eight "minor" lineages of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. "Major" here refers to those Kagyü lineages founded by the immediate disciples of Gampopa (1079-1153) ...

school of Buddhism. The Drikung history states that the Indian scholar

Naropa Nāropā (Prakrit; sa, Nāropāda, Naḍapāda or Abhayakirti) or Abhayakirti was an Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha. He was the disciple of Tilopa and brother, or some sources say partner and pupil, of Niguma. As an Indian Mahasiddha, Naropa's ...

(956-1041 CE) allegedly caused a lake which filled the valley to dry up and founded Lamayuru Monastery. The oldest surviving building at Lamayuru is a temple called Seng-ge-sgang, at the southern end of the Lamayuru rock, which is attributed to the famous builder-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 CE). Rinchen Zangpo was charged by the king of Ladakh to build 108 gompas, and certainly many gompas in Ladakh,

Spiti Valley Spiti (pronounced as Piti in Bhoti language) is a high-altitude region of the Himalayas, located in the north-eastern part of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The name "Spiti" means "The middle land", i.e. the land between Tibe ...

and the surrounding regions, date from his time. The gompa consisted originally of five buildings, and some remains of the four corner buildings can still be seen.Schettler & Schettler (1981), pp. 100, 102. Lamayuru is one of the largest and oldest gompas in Ladakh, with a population of around 150 permanent monks resident. It has, in the past, housed up to 400 monks, many of which are now based in gompas in surrounding villages. Lamayuru is host to two annual masked dance festivals in the second and fifth months of the Tibetan lunar calendar, when all the monks from these surrounding gonpas gather together to pray. Nearby is Wanla Monastery. Lamayuru Gompa from above.jpg Lamayuru Monastery 06.jpg Lamayuru Monastery 15.jpg Lamayuru Monastery 13.jpg Lamayuru Monastery 11 - Avalokiteśvara.jpg

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). ''Antiquities of Indian Tibet''. Two Volumes. Calcutta. 1972 reprint: S. Chand, New Delhi. *Sarina Singh, et al. ''India''. (2007). 12th Edition. Lonely Planet. . *Schettler, Margaret & Rolf. (1981) Kashmir, Ladakh & Zanskar. Lonely Planet, South Yarra, Vic., Australia. *Tucci, Giuseppe. (1988). ''Rin-chen-bzan-po and the Renaissance of Buddhism in Tibet Around the Millenium''. First Italian Edition 1932. First draft English translation by Nancy Kipp Smith, under the direction of Thomas J. Pritzker. Edited by Lokesh Chandra. English version of ''Indo-Tibetica II''. Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi. .

External links

Lamayuru Gompa

{{TibetanBuddhism Leh district Drikung Kagyu monasteries and temples Buddhist monasteries in Ladakh Buddhism in Ladakh