Tawang monastery


Tawang Monastery is the second largest Monastery in the world and it is the largest monastery in India. Tawang Monastery  was founded by Merag Lodroe Gyamtso in 1680-1681. Tawang Monastery is also known as Gaden Namgyal Lhatse i.e., ("celestial paradise in a clear night").The monastery is 3 stories high. it's embowered by a 925 feet (282 m) long compound wall, inside the complex there are sixty five residential buildings for students, Lamas and monks. The library of the monastery has valuable ancient scriptures, primarily Kangyur and Tengyur. It is situated about 2KM from the main town of Tawang.

The full name of the monastery is Tawang Galdan Namgye Lhatse. 'Ta' means that "horse", 'wang' means "chosen", that altogether forms the word 'Tawang', which means "the location chosen by horse". Further, the word 'Gadan' means "paradise", the word 'Namgyal' means "celestial" and the word 'Lhatse' means "divine". Thus, the complete meaning of the 'Tawang Galdan Namgye Lhatse' is the "site chosen by the horse is the celestial divine paradise".

Main buildings of Tawang Monastery :

The Tawang monastery, designed like a massive mansion, is triple storied with a large auditorium, 10 other functional structures and with sixty five residential quarters for college kids, Lamas and monks.The monastery has a school and its own water facility, and a centre for Buddhist cultural studies.The walls of the monastery also have a pelnitude of thangkas of Buddhist deities and saints.A notable feature on the wall of the porch on the ground floor is a footprint on a stone block. it's aforesaid that this footprint belonged to a resident of the monastery, who was a water carrier, known as Chitenpa.

Read more about Tawang at Wikipedia