Pabongkha Hermitage (Pha bong kha ri khrod)[1]
by José Ignacio Cabezón (January 30, 2006)
Section 1 of 3
Distributed under the THDL Digital Text License.
Introduction
A view of Pha bong kha from the south. A view of Pha bong kha from the rear, looking down into the Nyang bran Valley.
Pha bong kha, one of the largest and most important of the Se ra hermitages (ri khrod), lies about eight kilometers northwest of downtown Lha sa on the southern (Lha sa-facing) slope of a peak known as Mount Parasol (Dbu gdugs ri), northwest of Se ra. It takes a little over one hour to walk from Pha bong kha to Se ra. Pha bong kha is the starting point for the “Sixth-Month Fourth-Day” (Drug pa tshe bzhi) Sera Mountain Circumambulation Circuit (Se ra’i ri ’khor) pilgrimage. To see images of the circumambulation taken in 2002, click here.
The site has a long history that is said to go back to the time of the first Buddhist king (of Tibet) Songtsen Gampo (Chos rgyal srong btsan sgam po).[2] Although originally the site of his castle (sku mkhar) or fort, it appears that Pha bong kha was quickly converted into a monastery, perhaps as early as the reign of the second great Buddhist king (of Tibet) Trisong Detsen (Chos rgyal khri srong lde’u btsan). The monastery was partially destroyed as part of King Glang dar ma’s (d. 842) campaign to dismantle monastic Buddhism. During the so-called “later propagation period” (phyi dar), Pha bong kha was taken over by members of the Bka’ gdams pa school. Later, Tsong kha pa (1357-1419) lived at the site as a hermit, and it eventually became a Dge lugs institution. Before 1959, Pha bong kha was apparently an autonomous institution that belonged to no other monastery, although at various times it has had informal ties to Se ra through the person of the various Se ra bla mas that served as its abbots. The monastery suffered considerable destruction from 1960 to the mid-1980s. Se ra monks began renovating the buildings in the mid-1980s, and today the monastery belongs to Se ra. Since the mid-80s, all of Pha bong kha’s monks are Se ra monks, and the hermitage is managed by a senior Se ra monk. As was the case before 1959, and as is typical of the Se ra hermitages in general, Pha bong kha is principally a ritual institution. It maintains its own tradition of monthly and yearly ritual cycles.[3] The most important of these yearly ritual events (at least for the laity) are:
•the six-day (three sets of two-day) Avalokiteśvara fasting rituals (smyung gnas) that take place during the time of the Tibetan New Year (Lo gsar) celebrations,
•the sixteen-day (eight sets of two-day) Avalokiteśvara fasting rituals that take place during the fourth Tibetan month. This attracts many (especially elderly) people from Lha sa and the surrounding area, and
•the ritual and other events that take place during the “Sixth-Month Fourth-Day” pilgrimage.
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Notes
[1] The account that follows is based on the narrative of the monastery in Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Dga’ ldan chos ’byung bai ḍūrya ser po [Yellow Lapis: A History of the Ganden (School)] (Krung go’i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 1991), 144; on the “Pha bong kha” entry in Dung dkar blo bzang ’phrin las, Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo (Krung go’i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 2002), 1313-1316; on a dkar chag of the monastery made available to me by Pha bong kha monks in 2004; and on material from oral interviews with some of the resident monks conducted in August of 2004.
The title of the dkar chag reads Yul nyer bzhi’i ya rgyal/ de bi ko ṭi dang ming gzhan pha bong kha byang chub shing gi nags khrod du bkod pa’i dkar chag dad ldan padmo rgyas byed gzi sbyin ’od stong ’bar ba’i nor bu (hereafter Pha bong kha’i dkar chag). It appears to be an edited version of a text bearing the same name published in Three Khrid on the Nā ro mkha’ spyod Practice (Delhi: Ngawang Sopa, 1976), 454-532. (I have Gene Smith to thank for making a copy of this latter edition available to me.) References to the dkar chag in this work are to the edition published in Tibet. The publication of the Tibetan edition of the dkar chag was sponsored by a contemporary abbot (or perhaps now former abbot) of Pha bong kha, Byams pa thub bstan rin po che.
In the colophon the author of the dkar chag identifies himself as the reincarnation of a bla ma of Kong po jo rdzong, the reincarnation of the bla ma of Chökhang Tsewa Monastery (Chos khang rtse ba dgon pa); he also identifies himself as belonging to the Mé College (Grwa tshang smad) of Se ra, but gives his name only in Sanskrit as Wāginḍamatibhadrapaṭu bandashāsadharasagara (sic).
The introductory verse of the Delhi edition bears identifying marks (dots) under certain syllables. (These are missing in the Tibetan edition.) Those marks spell out “Ngag dbang blo bzang thub bstan rgya mtsho ’jigs bral dbang phyug phyogs las rnam par rgyal ba.” This resembles the name of the eighth Demo incarnation Ngawang Lozang Tupten Jikmé Gyatso (De mo sku phreng brgyad pa ngag dbang blo bzang thub bstan ’jigs med rgya mtsho, 1778-1819), tutor of the Ninth Dalai Lama (Da lai bla ma sku phreng dgu pa, 1806-1815).
The colophon tells us that the work was written between the female-fire-pig (me mo phag) and male-earth-bird (sa pho bya) years. In the fourteenth calendrical cycle or rab byung, this corresponds to 1827-1828. The author of the dkar chag further states that he based his work on a verse text compiled by Mkhar rdo ba (mkhan thog brgyad pa kha rdo sku thog bzod pa rgya mtsho’am/_blo bzang sgom chung pas bsgrigs pa tshig bcad ma), as well as on the constitution (bca’ yig) of the monastery written by Rta tshag ye shes bstan pa’i mgon po (1760-1810). On Mkhar rdo bzod pa rgya mtsho (1672-1749) see the Introduction to the Hermitages. On Rta tshag ye shes bstan pa’i mgon po, see TBRC P302.
Still unavailable, to my knowledge, are: (1) the dkar chag of Pha bong kha in six folios written by Mkhar rdo bzod pa rgya mtsho, and (2) another dkar chag by ’Khon ston dpal ’byor lhun grub (1561-1637). The latter is mentioned in A khu rin po che’s (1803-1875) list of rare texts; see Lokesh Chandra, Materials for a History of Tibetan Literature (Kyoto: Rinsen Book Co., 1981, repr. of the 1963 ed.), no. 11012. Bshes gnyen tshul khrims, Lha sa’i dgon tho rin chen spungs rgyan [A Catalogue of the Monasteries of Lhasa: A Heap of Jewels; hereafter Lha sa’i dgon tho] (Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 2001), 15, quotes ’Khon ston’s dkar chag, implying, perhaps, that he had the text at his disposal; he gives the date of composition of the work as 1619.
Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho’s account of Pha bong kha in the Bai ḍūrya ser po, 144, is fascinating because it links the flourishing of Tibet to the flourishing of Pha bong kha; and vice versa, it links political problems in Tibet with the decline of Pha bong kha. Mention of Pha bong kha is also found in Turrell Wylie, The Geography of Tibet According to the ’Dzam-gling-rgyas-bshad (Rome: IsMEO, 1962), 83 and 159 n. 400; and Alfonsa Ferrari, Luciano Petech and Hugh Richardson, Mk’yen brtse’s Guide to the Holy Places of Central Tibet (Rome: IsMEO, 1958), 42, 101-102 n. 86, and plates 6 and 7.
[2] Bshes gnyen tshul khrims, Lha sa’i dgon tho, 15, gives the date of Pha bong kha’s founding as “around 643” but cites no source for this.
[3] As with many monasteries, these include both exoteric and Tantric ritual practices that take place on the eighth, tenth, fifteenth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-eighth of the lunar month. Pha bong kha monks also do special rituals for important bla mas in the tradition every Wednesday.
source : www.thdl.org/collections/cultgeo/mons/sera/hermitages/ind...
Tags: Pabonka Gompa Nikon F100/28-70mm1:2.8D/85mm1:1.4D/20mm1:2.8D/70-300mm1:4-5.6D Jan Reurink Pha bong kha Nyang bran Valley Dbu gdugs ri Drug pa tshe bzhi Se ra’i ri ’khor Chos rgyal srong btsan sgam po
Tags: Pabonka Gompa Nikon F100/28-70mm1:2.8D/85mm1:1.4D/20mm1:2.8D/70-300mm1:4-5.6D Jan Reurink Pha bong kha Nyang bran Valley Dbu gdugs ri Drug pa tshe bzhi Se ra’i ri ’khor Chos rgyal srong btsan sgam po
Tags: Pabonka Gompa Nikon F100/28-70mm1:2.8D/85mm1:1.4D/20mm1:2.8D/70-300mm1:4-5.6D Jan Reurink Pha bong kha Nyang bran Valley Dbu gdugs ri Drug pa tshe bzhi Se ra’i ri ’khor Chos rgyal srong btsan sgam po
Tags: Pabonka Gompa Nikon F100/28-70mm1:2.8D/85mm1:1.4D/20mm1:2.8D/70-300mm1:4-5.6D Jan Reurink Pha bong kha Nyang bran Valley Dbu gdugs ri Drug pa tshe bzhi Se ra’i ri ’khor Chos rgyal srong btsan sgam po
Pabongkha Hermitage
Pabonka Hermitage
Pabonka Hermitage (pha bong kha ri khrod), the largest and most important of the Sera hermitages is located about8 kilometres (5.0 mi) northwest of Lhasa in the Nyang bran Valley on the slopes of Mount Parasol.
The site, which is over 1,300 years old, dates back to Songtsän Gampo, the founder of the Tibetan Empire, and was amongst the first buildings built in the Lhasa area by him during the 7th century after settlement. Although originally the site of his castle or fort, the Tibetan Annals have revealed that Pabonka was converted into a monastery, possibly under the reign of the second great Buddhist king of Tibet Trisong Detsen. Detsen, along with Guru Rinpoche and the first seven monks of the new Tibetan Empire used to meditate at the hermitage and it became one of Tibet's very earliest Buddhist monasteries, possibly even pre-dating Jokhang. The original nine-storied monastery was partially destroyed by King Langdharma in 841 AD during his campaign to destroy monastic Buddhism; it was rebuilt in the 11th century as a two-storied structure that housed 200 monks.
Je Tsongkhapa, who lived for some time as a hermit in Pabonka
Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) lived at the site as a hermit, and it eventually became a scholarly institution. The Fifth Dalai Lama was known to be fond of the monastery and funded the building of an upper floor for Pabonka.
Before 1959, Pabonka was independent of Sera Monastery, and from 1960 to the mid-1980s it was controlled by the Chinese. It then came under the control of Sera, whose monks renovated it and are continuing its traditions.
This temple is noted for its many shrines, and its blue and carved gold mantra in the hallway, inscribed with words meaning, "Hail to the jewel in the lotus". A number of stone relics were buried during the Cultural Revolution but when Sera monks restored the hermitage they excavated the relics and restored most of them. A central shrine, dating back 1300 years to Gampo, is located in the temple and depicts Chenresig, Jampelyang and Chana Dorje, the so-called "Rigsum Gompo Trinity" from which the temple takes its name. Up the hill from the hermitage, past a group of chortens, is Palden Lhamo Cave, a cave known to have been a meditation chamber of Songstan Gampo himself and contains statues of himself, his two wives and a rock carving of Palden Lhamo, the protectress.
The hermitage notably has its own tradition of monthly and yearly ritual cycles. The most important of these yearly ritual events (at least for the laity) are the six-day (three sets of two-day) Avalokiteśvara fasting rituals that take place during the Tibetan New Year (Losar) celebrations, the sixteen-day (eight sets of two-day) Avalokiteśvara fasting rituals that take place during the fourth Tibetan month (they attract many people from Lhasa and the surrounding districts), and a ritual and other events that take place during the “Sixth-Month Fourth-Day” pilgrimage.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sera_Monastery
Tags: Pabonka Gompa Nikon F100/28-70mm1:2.8D/85mm1:1.4D/20mm1:2.8D/70-300mm1:4-5.6D Jan Reurink Pha bong kha Nyang bran Valley Dbu gdugs ri Drug pa tshe bzhi Se ra’i ri ’khor Chos rgyal srong btsan sgam po lhasa