Tawang Monastery is the largest monastery in India and second largest and oldest in Asia. And now you know why visiting this monastery is a must when visiting Arunachal Pradesh.
Facts
It is situated on a mountain in Tawang at an altitude of over 3000m . Tawang monastery in tibetian language is known as GaldenNamgeyLhatse which means celestial paradise in a clear night. The monastery is 3 stories high and offers a beautiful city of Tawang city.
The main prayer hall of the monastery, has a huge statue of Buddha wrapped in golden. There is even a library which has valuable old scriptures including Kangyur and Tengyur. The monastery has residential building for monks and schools for basic education.
Some of the things to looks forward to at Tawang Monastery are sketches and paintings of Bodhisattvas and many other work of arts.
The monastery is second largest and oldest in Asia.
Legend story behind Tawang Monastery
In the first legend it is said that location of the present Monastery was selected by a horse which belonged to Merag Lama Lodre Gyatso who was on a mission assigned to him by the 5h Dalai Lama to establish a Monastery. After an intense search, when he failed to locate a suitable place, he retired into a cave to offer prayers seeking divine intervention to choose the site. When he came out of the cave, he found his horse missing. He then went in search of the horse and finally found it grazing at the top of a mountain called Tana Mandekhang, which in the past was the palace of King Kala Wangpo. He took this as a divine and auspicious guidance and decided to establish the monastery at that location
source : Wikipedia
Architecture of the Monastery
You will enter monastery through a colorful gate structure called Kakaling, built in the form of hut. The main temple area is called Dukhang, it was build in 1860-61 and houses a 18 ft statue of Buddha in a lotus position. The side walls reflect the supremacy craftmanship of stone masonry.
Festivals celebrated
Every year Tawang hosts Torgya festival to ward off evil spirits and spread around feeling of happiness and prosperity to people. It’s a three day festival and dancers wears masks and colorful costumes.
Don’t listen to what they, go and see it**
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