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Kinnaur & Lahaul Spiti
Water Sports at Pong Dam
Tabo Monastary A Citadel of Budhist Art
Pangi:An Idyllic Mountain Valley
Barot : A Slvan Retreat
Tattapani Spring that
Heal
Saketi -TheShivalik
Fossil Park
Heli-Skiing in Manali
Nornulingka Preserving
Tibetan Culture
TheEarlyWoodenTemples Of
Bharmour
Dada Siba Temple
Sujanpur Temple
Trekking in Himachal
Hotel Booking on Line
Tour Booking on Line
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Kinnaur & Lahaul Spiti
As the dew-drop slips into the shining sea', the teachings of the Buddha
'The Enlightened One' (c 563 -c 483 B.C.) sought for the individual to
merge with the universal life .He could thus attain nirvana and end the
cycle of birth, rebirth and suffering.
In Himachal Pradesh, a part of the world where natural beauty abounds
and where legends seem to merge with verifiable history, there lies a
necklace of Buddhist monasteries, gompas etched across its landscape.
And no measure of money can value this treasure, for its significance is
something past compare.
Some gompas go back to the time when Buddhism was a shadow less sapling
in the region. The seed for its rise in the area had been sown in the
seventh century A. D. when the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo (Sron-b Tsan
Sgam -po) was influenced by two of his wives -Wen Cheng from China and
Bkrikuti Devi from Nepal. A century later, king Trison Detsen (Khri-Sron-lde-
btsan 755 -797 A.D.) embraced the way of the Buddha. And from India came
masters like Santarakshita and the famous teacher and tantric
Padmasambhava.
The ninth century witnessed a break in the spread of Buddhism, but the
tenth and eleventh centuries witnessed a grand revival and it was an age
of great teachers -Atisha, Marpa, Milarepa and Rinchensangpo. With the
passage of time, Buddhism became the major religion of Tibet, Ladakh,
Lahaul and Spiti -and its influence also lay in other neighbouring areas
like Kinnaur. And the gompas -apart from their religious influence -also
became the founts of power and the repositories of the region's art and
manuscripts. A millennium old, Tabo in Spiti is one of the area's most
revered monastery. There are monasteries which are barely a few decades
old and came into being after 1959, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama
left Tibet along with several followers and came to reside in India.
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And as surely as the chant of prayers accompanied with rhythmic drum
beats and interspersed with the roll of cymbals and the calls of long
horns-ring out of their hallowed halls, they stand blessing the land and
welcoming every pilgrim and traveler.
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