The Tangyud Monastery (also written bTang-rGyud, Tangyuth) or Sa-skya-gong-mig

Gompa A Gompa or Gönpa ( "remote place", Sanskrit ''araṇya''), also known as ling (), is a Buddhism, Buddhist ecclesiastical fortification of learning, lineage and sādhanā that may be understood as a conflation of a fortification, a vihara and a ...

at the village of Komic, two km southeast of Hikkim in the

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 ...

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, is built like a fortified castle on the edge of a deep canyon, with massive slanted mud walls and battlements with vertical red ochre and white vertical stripes which make them look much taller than they really are. It is one of the highest altitude gompas (monasteries) in India, at an altitude of , on the edge of a deep canyon and overlooking the town of Kaza, Spiti 4 km to the west. It is located on the periphery of the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary.

History

It is one of only two monasteries belonging to the

Sakya The ''Sakya'' (, 'pale earth') school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug. It is one of the Red Hat Orders along with the Nyingma and Kagyu. Origins Virūpa, 16th century. It depict ...

sect left in Spiti - the other, at Kaza itself, is small and relatively insignificant. It reportedly had 60 monks in 1855. Spiti Sakya Tangyuth Gompa 2

Young monks studying Sakya Tangyuth Gompa

Although it is considered by locals to be very ancient, an examination of the present fortified structure modelled on a Tibetan castle, and other circumstantial evidence, makes it likely that it was built early in the 14th century when the Sakyapas rose to power under

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member of ...

patronage. It is thought, however, that there was an earlier

Kadampa 300px, Tibetan Portrait of Atiśa The Kadam school () of Tibetan Buddhism was an 11th century Buddhist tradition founded by the great Bengali master Atiśa (982-1054) and his students like Dromtön (1005–1064), a Tibetan Buddhist lay master. ...

establishment here founded by

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) and named ''Rador-lha''. The name, Tangyud, may refer to the Sakya revision of the ''Tang-rGyud'', or the 87 volumes of Tantra treatises which form part of the

Tengyur The Tengyur or Tanjur or Bstan-’gyur (Tibetan: "Translation of Teachings") is the Tibetan collection of commentaries to the Buddhist teachings, or "Translated Treatises". The Buddhist Canon To the Tengyur were assigned commentaries to b ...

. This was carried out about 1310 CE by a team of scholars under the Sakya lama, Ch'os-Kyi-O'd-zer. The monastery is patronised by the local chieftains of Spiti and the monastery has a special cell built into southeastern side for them when they visit. Tangyud village is at the foot of the monastery (altitude 4,470 m or 14,665 ft). The monastery itself was apparently badly damaged in the earthquake of 1972.http://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.nekor.net/viaggio.htm&ei=5yRQSuqANpPUtQPV5Pm9Dw&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=10&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DTangyud%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20 And this monastery was several times robbed around 1920-1940 by the thief and robbers from Kashmirs and other parts of the areas. They took all the golds and broke all the statues and monks had to run away from the monastic to save their lives.

Gallery

Footnotes

References

* Francke, A. H. (1914, 1926). ''Antiquities of Indian Tibet''. Two Volumes. Calcutta. 1972 reprint: S. Chand, New Delhi. * 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. (1st edition 1996). Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi. .

External links

Lahaul & Spiti Tourism
{{Authority control Buddhism in Lahaul and Spiti district Buildings and structures in Lahaul and Spiti district Buddhist monasteries in Himachal Pradesh Religious organizations established in the 11th century