Gangteng Monastery, Bhutan, Himalayas

Tapas Ghosh (tapasphotography/flickr.com); Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

Gangtey Monastery

The Dalai Lama, Thurman, TibetHouse.us

Perched on a small hill that rises from the valley floor, Gangteng Monastery (aka Gangtey Gonpa) is the only Nyingmapa monastery on the western side of Bhutan’s Black Mountain’s Phobjikha Valley.

View of Phobjikha Valley, aka Gangtey Valley, Bhutan, at  sunset (Milon/Wiki)

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Padmasambhava Rinpoche (Wiki)

It is also the biggest Nyingmapa monastery in all of Buddhist Bhutan. The monastery is surrounded by a large village inhabited mainly by families of the 140 gomchens who take care of the monastery.

Gangteng was founded by Pema Trinley, the grandson of Pema Lingpa, the famous Nyingmapa sage (bodhisattva) of Bhutan.

In 1613, Pema Trinley established the monastery and became the first Gangteng Tulku (recognized incarnation of a prominent lama). The religious traditions of Pema Lingpa are still taught here.

The second tulku, Tenzin Legpa Dondrup (1645-1726), enhanced the size of Gangteng while keeping up good relations with the Drukpas and rebuilt the monastery in the form of a dzong ("fortress"). More