Bön monasteries in Tibet, Nepal and India.

Discussion of the fifth religious tradition of Tibet.
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Re: Bön monasteries in Tibet, Nepal and India.

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Dr. Geshe Shenphen Samdup




The Honorary Abbot of Los Lobos Monastery, and director of Buddhist Studies.

AbbotGeshe Shenphen Samdup was born in the village of Karzhi in Bhutan. His father brought him to the Menri Monastery in India at the age of seven, where he attended the School for Tibetan Refuges. In 1992 he joined the Bon Dialectic School, where he studied Philosophy, Tibetan, Grammar, Poetry, Astrology, Astronomy and Tibetan medicine, earning a PhD in 2004.

In 1996, Geshe accompanied His Holiness the Menri Trizin to Tibet, where he visited ancient Bon monasteries and was able to recover ancient texts including Yungdrung Bon Kangyur, the direct teaching of Tenpa Shenrab. For years Geshe worked establish the Zhang-Bod Documentation Center to preserve the Zhang-Zhung culture, and to maintain records of all the teachings by H.H. and other masters.
Dr. Samdup ws executive producer of numerous documentaries including “Summer Rituals of Menri”, “His Holiness Visit to Menri 2007”, “H.H. the Menri Trizin’s trip to Tibet 2004”, “The Bon in Dholanji, India”, and other films on Bon dances and ceremonies, some of which were featured in the Washington Film Festival.

From 2006 to 2008 Dr. Samdup was the senior project officer in the Bon Monastic Center, where he built the Bon Monastic Center Office, and three large dorms for the monks. He also directed the interior design of Bon Museum, Conference Hall, the Media Center and the Tibetan Bon library at Menri Monastery, which was inaugurated by H.H. the Dalai Lama in April 2007.
Currently Geshe Samdup is Abbot of the Los Lobos Mountain Monastery in Chile, and a Research Fellow at The Four Winds Society.

Current appointments:
Board of Directors Bon Monastic Center, India
Chief Financial Officer Menri Monastery India, seat of World Bon Order
Senior Research Fellow Four Winds Institute

Former appointments:
Visiting scholar at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York 2000
Visiting professor Skidmore College in New York 2000
Visiting scholar on Tibetan culture, Smithsonian Institute 2000
Lecturer, Christ in Desert Monastery in Santa Fe 2000
Lecturer, Honda Mesa Center 2000
Lecturer, Yuan Yuan Educational Foundation in San Francisco 2000.

http://losloboslodge.com/monastery/
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Re: Bön monasteries in Tibet, Nepal and India.

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kalden yungdrung wrote:Tashi delek,

Here a link to a Bön Monastery, do not at the moment not the name of the Monastery......

https://www.facebook.com/dennisokp/vide ... 553699460/

KY

IN ADDITION:
6th Pugyal Chirim Chenmo Puja held in Jaze Yangzong Thongmon Gawa Ling Monastery from 5th till 7th August 2017
ཁྱུང་སེར་བྱ་ཟེ་དགོན་དུ་སྤུ་རྒྱལ་ཁུལ་གྱི་སྤྱི་རིམ་ཐེངས་དྲུག་སྐབས་སུ་སྨན་བསྐོར་ཕེབས་པའི་མཛད་རྣམ། བརྙན་ལེན་པ། ཁྱུང་གྲགས་པ།
Jaze Yangzong Thongmon Gawa Ling Monastery invited Tenzin Oser Rinpoche, the Abbot of Tsedrug Monastery to the temple hall for the opening ceremony of 6th Pugyal Chirim Chenmo Puja. Tenzin Oser Rinpoche presided over the dew, the salvation method for the local monks blessing empowerments. Next days, the local monks held a large initiation method.
>> Note on Jaze Yangzong Thongmon Gawa Ling Monastery
Jaze Yangzong Thongmon Gawa Ling Monastery is located in Western Khyungpo in Kham of Eastern Tibet. This monastery has more than 600 years of history.
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Re: Bön monasteries in Tibet, Nepal and India.

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With many thanks to Dennis !

---------------------------------

6th Pugyal Chirim Chenmo Puja held in Jaze Yangzong Thongmon Gawa Ling Monastery from 5th till 7th August 2017
ཁྱུང་སེར་བྱ་ཟེ་དགོན་དུ་སྤུ་རྒྱལ་ཁུལ་གྱི་སྤྱི་རིམ་ཐེངས་དྲུག་སྐབས་སུ་སྨན་བསྐོར་ཕེབས་པའི་མཛད་རྣམ། བརྙན་ལེན་པ། ཁྱུང་གྲགས་པ།


Jaze Yangzong Thongmon Gawa Ling Monastery invited Tenzin Oser Rinpoche, the Abbot of Tsedrug Monastery to the temple hall for the opening ceremony of 6th Pugyal Chirim Chenmo Puja. Tenzin Oser Rinpoche presided over the dew, the salvation method for the local monks blessing empowerments. Next days, the local monks held a large initiation method.

>> Note on Jaze Yangzong Thongmon Gawa Ling Monastery

Jaze Yangzong Thongmon Gawa Ling Monastery is located in Western Khyungpo in Kham of Eastern Tibet. This monastery has more than 600 years of history.

>>> The above is the translation of the following article, guided by Geshe Yungdrung Gyaltsen Phagontsang.

http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gJbsiCCFQESsBbCATvR--w
http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/VnZTPNkLwmuWYbLJrL1LuA

>>>> Note on Translation
Please feel free to comment if you find any error in the above translation or there is any need for correction or update.
video source:
https://www.skypixel.com/…/0d492002-86d ... 1-789c1685
https://www.facebook.com/dennisokp/vide ... 837032765/
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Re: Bön monasteries in Tibet, Nepal and India.

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Prayer ceremony for the 33rd Abbot His Holiness Gyalwa Menriwa Lungtok Tenpei Nyima Pal Zangpo Rinpoche on 2nd October 2017 at Dura Monastery.

The ceremony was guided by a dozen local Geshe whom have studied and graduated from Menri Monastery, India. They were joined by about 400 followers and some thirteen sponsors.

===========================

About Dura Monastery,

Dura Monastery འདུས་ར་དགོན་ 多绕寺. Dura Monastery has more than a 1000 years of history as a centre of development for Yungdrung Bön.

Dura Monastery is located in Yajiang County. Nyagqu or Nyachukha County (ཉག་ཆུ་ཁ།, Nyagchukha, Nyagquka) or Yajiang County (named after Nyagchukha in Tibetan) is a county of the traditional Kham Region of eastern Tibet.

It is currently under the administration of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China.



With many thanks to a very devoted Bönpo, Dennis Ooi and Sherab Namdak who made translations.
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Re: Bön monasteries in Tibet, Nepal and India.

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First Anniversary Memorial Service for Togden Tripa Rinpoche
Togden Tripa Rinpoche རྟོགས་ལྡན་ཁྲི་བ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ 赤瓦仁波切, 1933 - 2016

Location:
Shar Gyalrong Yungdrung Lhateng Monastery

༧ཤར་རྒྱལ་རོང་གཡུང་དྲུང་ལྷ་སྟེང་དགོན།
嘉绒金川雍仲拉顶·广法寺


This monastery is located at about 28 kilometers away from today Jinchuan county. It Is the largest Yungdrung Bön monastery in Gyarong Region of Tibet. It is located up the mountain in the beautiful lotus bud with the Dadu River water flowing around it. Jinchuan County is a county of Sichuan Province, China.

It is under the administration of the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.


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Re: Bön monasteries in Tibet, Nepal and India.

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CCTV 4 visiting Tsedrug Monastery

- Part 1 Introduction of the meditation hut at the Six Peak Mountain including the foot prints of the past master
- Part 2 About the Zhang Zhung culture and Buddha Tönpa Shenrab
- Part 3 About the translation project of Bön Tripiṭaka or Bön Canon led by Tendzin Tsugphü Özer Rinpoche, the 42nd reincarnation of Tsedrug Lama and Abbot of Tsedrug Monastery

Tsedrug Monastery is located at an altitude of about 4,850 meters above sea level in Sa sgang xiang in Dêngqên County, Chamdo in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China

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BUDDHA DRENPA NAMKHA CEREMONY
IN
TSEDRUG MONASTERY



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kalden yungdrung wrote: Fri Aug 26, 2016 3:01 pm Tashi delek DW members,

Guru Yam Gu ru gyam Monastery is located in Mon mtsher qu, sGar rdzong. It is 250 kilometres from sGar rdzong to Gangs sTi se.

Bön Momnasteries - Guru Yam Monastery.jpg


From there, one must travel 60 km. further to Mon mtsher xiang, then 7 km. to Dri bda’ spos ri, and another 7 km. westward. The distance is long, but the road is in good condition.

The place where Guru gyam Monastery is located is called Khyung lung dngul mkhar, which is one of the oldest Bönpo religious sites.

It was there that the capital of the Zhang zhung kingdom was found. It was there too that gShen chen Dran pa nam mkha’, one of the most important Bön masters, flourished. Then the Bön religion’s fortune declined and its religious establishments fell as lamp-light dying from lack of oil. Now they are nothing but names.

In 1936, Khyung sprul ’Jigs med nam mkha’i rdo rje founded the monastery mDo sngags grags rgyas gling at Gu ru gyam. It has now become fairly large and the condition of its buildings, religious objects and offering implements is reasonably good. At present, the monastery is taken care of by the scholar bsTan ’dzin dbang grags, and there are 7 monks and 3 nuns.

In regard to annual services and rituals, those practised at this monastery are much the same as other Bönpo monasteries.

IN ADITION:
http://sacredlandscapes.indiachinainsti ... monastery/
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Za Mongyal Yungdrung Ling, is a Bön monastery in Tibet and the Head of the Monastery is the 7th Kundrol Rinpoche.
There is also a little monastery in Dehra Dun / India with the same name.

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IN ADDITION:

Nice song. Saw in the clip the meditation cave of Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche.

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The Kogon Monastery in Khyungpo Tengchen, Tibet.

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Tsedrug Monastery

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Gongphu Gompa in Lubrak / Mustang / Nepal.

Lubrak has been an important site for religious practice for centuries. The two main temples in the village – Gongphu Gompa and Yungdrung Phuntsoling Gompa - each have a very different function in Lubrak’s complex religious life. There are also a further three private temples within the village that belong to individual households. In the vicinity of Lubrak, there are a number of caves that are regularly used for meditative retreats, including one that is used for dark retreats.

Upon entering the village, one must first pass a substantial Bön stupa, circumambulating it in a counter-clockwise manner, as is the custom of the Bönpos. Just beyond the stupa is a vast and ancient walnut tree, said to have been miraculously planted by the village’s founder in the 12th century, its wood still occasionally used for making sacred ritual objects.

Gongphu Gompa

Founded in the early part of the 12th century, Gongphu Gompa (‘The Temple of the High Cave’) is one of the oldest sacred sites in the entire Mustang region. It sits high on a bare hill, overlooking Lubrak village and the surrounding valleys. Its isolated position suits its purpose well - the temple was built over the cave where Lubrak’s founder, the Bön master, Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche , had meditated for 9 years, 9 months and 9 days. Legend has it that, as a miraculous sign of his spiritual achievements, a ridge appeared in the rock wall above the cave to mark each year that he spent in retreat. After the completion of his retreat, a small temple was built to commemorate his achievement, and was given the name Gongphu Gompa. Over the centuries, Bönpo practitioners had sought out this this site to follow in the path of this great master.



Restoration of Gongphu Gompa

By the 1990s, the monastery had become increasingly dilapidated and following the collapse of the monastery’s roof, the impoverished villagers reached out for international assistance. With initial funding from the Danish Embassy in Kathmandu, the monastery was renovated. In 2003, funding from the Kalpa Group enabled wooden floors and retreat cells to be added, and the interior walls decorated with a narrative painting of the history and mythology of the village. This remote monastery, long abandoned but for the visits of devout villagers and pilgrims from distant corners of Tibet, has again become an active centre for retreat and meditation.

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==================

In Lubrak is also found the oldest form of sky burial (400 years earlier than elsewhere and the connection from this place with the silk road. In Lubrak is a Bönpo community see above and also Geshe Gelek visited some mountain caves.

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Shar khog gTso tshang Monastery


The monastery´s full name is gTso tshang sMin grol bstan rgyas gling and was named after its founder,
gTso phags Zla ba rgyal mtshan.

Location of the monastery is located 17 km north of Songpan, the seat of Zung chu county
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His Holiness the 34th Menri Trizin Dawa Dargye Rinpoche,was here educated.

Byang Byadur Gamal Gonchen
Songpan County
Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Automous Prefecture
Sichuan Province, 623301
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IN ADDITION:

Introduction: by Samten G. Karmay

This volume is concerned with a general survey of monasteries, temples, hermitages of the Bön religion, known as gYung drung Bön, that have survived or recently been rebuilt in Tibet, Tibetan inhabited regions in China proper as well as the Himalayan regions.

The monastic system in the Bon tradition has a long history. It goes back at least to the eleventh century. However, Bon tradition itself traces it back to a period beyond the eleventh century, but this claim remains to be proved.

Although the monasticism of the Bon tradition owns its inspiration to Buddhism, the Bönpo already had established it when the Buddhists began to re-establish their monasteries in the eleventh century. This begins with the six Buddhist monks who returned to Central Tibet from Amdo where they were ordained by Bla chen dGe ba gsal (891-975) according to the Deb ther sngon po by 'Gos Lo tsa ba gZhon nu dpal (1392-1481).

In the case of the Bön tradition it started with the disciples of gShen chen Klu dga’. Bönpo chronology ascribes this master to 996-1035. He is also thought to be contemporary with Lo tsa ba Rin chen bzang po (958-1055). The disciples of gShen chen Klu dga’ established various religious centers, such as temples, hermitages and monasteries.

One of the disciples of this master, Bru chen Nam mkha’ g-yung drung, is credited with founding a temple in 1072 near the estate of his own family called Bru, a few kilometers to the east of Shigatse and north of the gTsang po river, Central Tibet. It soon developed into a monastery called gYas ru dBen sa kha.

The monastery was mainly maintained by the family by providing its abbots. While one brother ensured the line of the family, another would devote himself to religious life and often became the abbot of the monastery. In such an establishment, the monastery is usually considered as belonging to the family as the term dgon bdag, the ‘owner of the monastery” indicates. The ownership always remained the same even when the abbot was not a member of the family.

dBen sa kha came to be considered as the primary source of the monastic tradition among the Bonpo until the fourteenth century. It was an important centre of learning and produced a number of noted writers. Their works became classics for monastic learning in later centuries. The monastery, however, was destroyed by a flood in 1386. With the disappearance of this monastery a period of monastic culture of the Bon tradition came to an end.

A new era began with the foundation of two monasteries also in Central Tibet. These will be briefly described here as they had a tremendous influence over other monastic establishments that are surveyed by the four authors in this volume.

One of the monks of dBen sa kha Monastery just referred to was Shes rab rgyal mtshan. He was the head of the one of the colleges of the monastery, but he was absent from the monastery when it was washed away by a flood. He was on a visit to his mother in rGyal rong, eastern Tibet.

On the way back to Central Tibet, news of the flood reached him when he was in Dar rtse mdo. Discouraged, he withdrew himself into a retreat, but there he received good signs that encouraged him to resume his journey on foot back to Central Tibet. He is said to have found various objects in the ruins such as books and musical instruments that belonged to the destroyed monastery. With these objects, taken as an auspicious sign, he founded a monastery on the southern slope of Mount sMan ri in 1405. The monastery was called bKra shis sman ri (No.1). It is located in a rather secluded place, up the same valley where dBen sa kha Monastery was located.

With the help of his disciple Rin chen rgyal mtshan, a whole system in accordance with the Bru tradition of dBen sa kha Monastery was re-established with a strong emphasis on the need for abstention from alcoholic drink and the observance of celibacy as the principal guideline of the monastic discipline. These rules are laid out in the bca’ yig, the monastic code and it was read out to the assembly in a solemn ceremony by the disciplinarian once a year. The discipline of the new monastery thus became the model for most Bonpo monasteries in later centuries. It was hard to stick to the rules set out in the bca’ yig of sMan ri Monastery, but it became an established tradition and most monasteries that were founded later were expected to follow its tradition.

However, there were other monasteries which practised different ritual traditions such as the gShen lugs, the “Tradition of gShen” or Zhu lugs, the “Tradition of Zhu”, but all were expected to follow the same monastic discipline.

The Bonpo were often characterized as being lovers of women and wine (chang nag la dga’ ba) by the Buddhists, especially the dGe lugs monastics. In fact, in certain places the members of a monastery or temple were of what one calls ser khyim, that is a kind of “semi-monk” who observes only a few out of the many monastic vows. They usually spent a certain amount of time in the year in the monastery and the rest of the time at home in the village helping do household work. The ser khyim were not necessarily married men nor sngags pa.

The founder of sMan ri Monastery bears the title mNyam med, the “Incomparable One”, but in the colophons of books he wrote he describes himself as gShen gyi drang srong, the “monk who follows the gShen”, i.e. gShen rab Mi bo. Amongst his writings there is a detailed commentary of the ’Dul ba kun btus. It is entitled ’Dul ’grel ’phrul gyi sgron me. The ’Dul ba kun btus (Kvaerne 1974: T. 7) is a classic text devoted to the monastic discipline composed in verse by Me ston Shes rab ’od zer (1058-1132). It is these 2 works that serve as the textual basis of Bönpo monasticism.

sMan ri Monastery remained small and modest in its development as its founder had wished. Before he died, he appointed his disciple Rin chen rgyal mtshan as the abbot of the monastery. Thus Rin chen rgyal mtshan bears the title rGyal tshab, the “Apostle”.

However, the successors of Rin chen rgyal mtshan were elected by secret lot from among the qualified monks. There were thirty-two abbots spanning over five hundred and 60 years till around 1966. Its uneasy access did not help it become a great centre, but it was highly esteemed for its strict practice of monastic rules. Per Kvaerne (1970) was the first Western scholar to devote an article to the administration of this monastery. The Monastery was plundered and finally totally destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976. As of 2002, it still has not been rebuilt.

gYung drung gling Monastery (No.2) was the second in importance to sMan ri Monastery in Central Tibet.

It was founded by sNang ston Zla ba rgyal mtshan (b.1796) of Amdo origin in 1834. Although the monastery was a relatively recent establishment in comparison with sMan ri, it became more prosperous and influential particularly in north-eastern Tibet. The monastery is located on a small plateau at the foot of Mount ’O lha rGyal bzang to the north of the gTsang po river facing the sTag gru kha ferry. It is on the axis of routes leading to Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse and Byang thang, the northern plateau. This explains in part the monastery’s rapid development. For this strategic reason, the monastery was used as the base of a large People’s Liberation Army garrison in the area during the Cultural Revolution. It therefore remained intact till the very last days of the revolution. At the beginning of 1980s, permission was given with funding to rebuild it, but it remains largely symbolic and the temples that have been rebuilt were totally empty when I visited them in 1997.

https://texts.shanti.virginia.edu/thl/monasteries/bonpo#
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