Lamayuru or Yuru Monastery ( "Eternal Monastery") is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Lamayouro, Leh district, Ladakh, India. 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 ...

highway east of the Fotu La at a height of .

History

A. H. Francke states that, "according to popular tradition," it was originally the foremost Bon 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 Bon for "eternity". Yungdrung is the name of the most popular school of Bon. It is currently affiliated with the Drikung Kagyu 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 (958-1055 CE). Rinchen Zangpo was charged by the king of Ladakh to build 108 gompas, and certainly many gompas in Ladakh, Spiti Valley 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 Wanla Gompa is a historic Buddhist monastery on the ridge that crowns Wanla village in Ladakh, India. Its small but impressively preserved three-storeyed Avalokitesvara temple is one of the earliest known Drigung Kagyu prayer chambers to hav ...

. 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