Tawang Monastery, Arunachal Pradesh, India

Gelug Tradition, 17th century, about 400 monks.

Location

Tawang Monastery, located in Tawang city of Tawang district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, near the Tibetan and Bhutanese border. It is the largest monastery in India and second largest in the world after the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.

History

Tawang Monastery is known in Tibetan as Gaden Namgyal Lhatse, which translates to "celestial paradise in a clear night." It was founded by Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso in 1680-1681 in accordance with the wishes of the 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso.

It belongs to the Gelug school of Vajrayana Buddhism and had a religious association with Drepung Monastery of Lhasa, which continued during the period of British rule.

Tawang Monastery. Photo: Vikramjit Kakati/wikipedia.org

The monastery is three stories high. It is enclosed by a 282 m long compound wall. Within the complex there are 65 residential buildings. The library of the monastery has valuable old scriptures, mainly Kangyur and Tengyur.

Situated near the top of a mountain, at an elevation of about 3000 m, Tawand Monastery has a commanding view of the Tawang Chu valley. It is bounded on its southern and western flanks by steep ravines formed by streams, a narrow spur on the north and a gently sloping ground on the east.

Prior to the dominance of the Gelug sect of Buddhism in Tawang, the Nyingmapa or the Black Hat sect of Buddhism was dominant, and this resulted in their hostile approach towards the founder, Merek Lama.

This problem was compounded by the Drukpas of Bhutan, who also belonged to the Nyingmapa sect, who even tried to invade and take control of Tawang. Hence, the Tawang monastery was built like a fort structure, on a strategic location from the defense point of view.

Nearby Tawang Town, named after the monastery, is well connected by road, rail, and air services. Bhalukpong, which is the nearest rail head, is 280 kilometres away by road. Tezpur Airport is the nearest airport at a road distance of 350 kilometres.

Until 1914, this region of India was under the control of Tibet. However, under the Simla Agreement of 1913-14, the area came under the control of the British Raj. Tibet gave up several hundred square miles of its territory, including the whole of the Tawang region and the monastery, to the British. This disputed territory was the bone of contention for the 1962 India-China war.

Chinese troops occupied Tawang, including the monastery, for six months, but did not desecrate it. China claimed that Tawang belonged to Tibet. It is one of the few monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism that have remained protected from Mao's Cultural Revolution without any damage.

Before this war, in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama had fled from Tibet, and after an arduous journey, crossed into India on 30 March 1959, and had reached Tawang and taken shelter in the monastery for a few days before moving to Tezpur.

Fifty years later, despite strong protests by China, the Dalai Lama's visit on 8 November 2009 to Tawang Monastery was a monumental event to the people of the region, and the abbot of the monastery greeted him with much fanfare and adulation.

As of 2006 the monastery had 400 monks, and the number was reported to be 450 in 2010. Tawang Manuscript Conservation Centre was established in the monastery in August 2006, which has curated 200 manuscripts, and 31 manuscripts have been treated for preservation.

Monpas¹, who belong to the Gelug sect, are the dominant sect of the Kameng region. Many Monpa boys join the monastery and become Lamas.

When young boys join the monastery to train, it is on the condition that it is a lifetime commitment. If a monk wishes to leave the monastery, a heavy penalty is levied. According to a past custom, in a family of three sons, the middle son was conscripted to the monastery and in a family of two sons the youngest son was inducted into the monastery. Now is up to the discretion of the parents.

The monastery currently has control over 17 gompas in West Kameng district. The monastery has administrative control over two dzongs², each headed by a monk; the Darana Dzong built in 1831 and the Sanglem Dzong, also known as Talung Gompa, in the south-west part of Kameng district. These dzongs not only collect taxes but also preach Buddhism to the Monpas and Sherdukpens³ of Kameng.

The monastery owns cultivable lands in the villages of Soma and Nerguit and a few patches in some other villages which are tilled and cultivated by farmers, who share the produce with the monastery. The present resident head of the monastery is Gyalsy Rinpochey.

Festivals

The main Monpa festivals held in the monastery are the Choksar, Losar, Ajilamu, and Torgya. Choksar is the festival when the Lamas recite religious scriptures in the monasteries.

Following the religious recitations, the villagers carry the scriptures on their back and circumambulate their agricultural land seeking blessings for the good yield of crops without any infestations by pests and to protect against attack by wild animals.

In the Losar festival, which marks the beginning of the Tibetan New Year, people visit the monastery and offer prayers.

Torgya, also known as Tawang-Torgya, is an annual festival that is exclusively held in the monastery. It is held according to the Buddhist calendar days of 28th to 30th of Dawachukchipa, which corresponds to 10 to 12 January of the Gregorian calendar, and is a Monpa celebration.

The objective of the festival is to ward off evil spirits and ushering all round prosperity and happiness to the people in the ensuing year.

During the three-day festival, dances performed by artists in colorful costumes and masks are held in the courtyard, including the Pha Chan and the Losjker Chungiye, the latter of which is performed by the monks of the monastery. Each dance represents a myth and costumes and masks represent animal forms such as cows, tigers, sheep, monkeys and so forth.

Features

The monastery, built like a large mansion, is triple storied with a large assembly hall, ten other functional structures and with 65 residential quarters for students, Lamas and monks.

The monastery has a school and its own water supply facility, and the Library of Centre for Buddhist Cultural Studies (Tawang Monastry School) inaugurated and consecrated by HH the 14th Dalai lama on 8th Nov 2009.

A thangka of Palden Lhamo guardian deity of the monastery.The main temple in the monastery, to the west of the entry gate, is known as the Dukhang ('Du' means "assembly" and 'Khang' means "building"). It was built in 1860-61.

A 5.5m gilded image of Buddha is on the northern face of the assembly hall. Next to the Buddha image there is a silver casket that holds a special thangka of the goddess Sro Devi (Palden Lhamo), which is the guardian deity of the monastery. This thangka image was donated to the monastery by Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, the 5th Dalai Lama (1617–1682).

The main temple was renovated in 2002 in the traditional Buddhist architectural style. It has been exquisitely decorated with paintings, murals, carvings, and sculptures.

The monastery has a printing press for printing religious books using paper made locally. Wooden blocks are used for printing. The books are used by the literate Monpa Lamas who refer to it for conducting religious rituals.

The entire second floor houses the library. It contains the scriptures of Gyetengpa, Doduipa, Mamtha, Kangyur, Tengyur and Zungdui, which have been affected due to insect attacks.

The collection in the library consists of two printed books of Tengyur (in 25 volumes), which are commentaries on Buddhist teachings; three sets of Kangyur, the translated version of the canons of Buddhist teachings; and Chanjia Sangbhums in five volumes. Of the three sets of Kangyur, two are handwritten and one is printed. The printed sets are in 101 volumes.

One handwritten set has 131 volumes and the other 125 volumes; the letters of these 125 books are washed in gold. The religious text, Gyentongpa, has letters washed in gold in all its pages. At some stage, some of the sacred scriptures were lost and the reason was attributed to the monks of the Tsona monastery who used to visit Tawang during winter time.

In the past, these monks had demanded that the gilded image of the Buddha be gifted to them. This was not accepted by the Lamas of the Tawang Monastery and as result the Tsona Lamas refused to part with some of the sacred texts and records of the Tawang Monastery which were with them. They again took away more books in 1951.

Gilded image of Buddha. Photo: wikipedia.org

A museum is at the far end of the courtyard for which an entry fee is charged. Monastery main building is the only place where visitors may enter in addition to the museum.

Etiquette and Awareness

A special permit is required to reach this monastery in Arunachal Pradesh. Cameras and mobile phones are not allowed inside the monastery. Any form of photography is prohibited.

Several hotels are available nearby, within a distance of few kilometers.

Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is the harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. People can respond to high altitude in different ways. Symptoms may include headaches, vomiting, tiredness, confusion, trouble sleeping, and dizziness.

Acute mountain sickness can progress to high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) with associated shortness of breath or high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) with associated confusion. Prevention is by gradually increasing elevation by no more than 300 metres (1,000 ft) per day.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/
• https://tawang.site/
• http://www.arunachaltourism.com/tawang.php

Footnotes

1. The Monpa or Mönpa is a major tribe of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. The Tawang Monpas have a migration history from Changrelung. The Monpa are believed to be the only nomadic tribe in Northeast India - they are totally dependent on animals like sheep, cow, yak, goats and horses. The Monpa have a very close affinity with the Sharchops of Bhutan. Their languages are Tibeto-Burman languages written with the Tibetan alphabet.

2. Dzong architecture is a distinctive type of fortified monastery architecture found mainly in Bhutan and Tibet. The architecture is massive in style with towering exterior walls surrounding a complex of courtyards, temples, administrative offices, and monks' accommodation.

3. The Sherdukpen are an ethnic group of Arunachal Pradesh state of India. Their population of 9,663 is centered in West Kameng in the villages of Rupa, Jigaon, Thongri, Shergaon, in Bomdila.