Phyang Monastery, Phyang (or Phiyang) Gompa is a Buddhist

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 monastery located just 15 or 16 kilometres west of Leh in Ladakh

Ladakh

Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...

, northern India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It was established in 1515.

History

There are a couple of divergent traditions regarding its founding.

."The site where the monastery now stands was once a part of the numerous monastic properties, offered during the time of Dharmaraja Jamyang Namgial to Chosje Damma Kunga. The hill of Phyang served as the venue of a monastery, known as Tashi Chozong, established in the year 1515. A monastic community was introduced to the monastery and with this started, the first establishment of the Digung teachings in Ladakh."

Others say that it was founded by king Tashi Namgyal

Tashi Namgyal

Tashi Namgyal was the ruling Chogyal of Sikkim from 1914 to 1963...

, whose reign has been established from independent sources to have been in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. There are a number of chronological difficulties in establishing events in Ladakh at this period and it is assumed that some names have been omitted from the Chronicle either from mistakes in memory or tradition, or a deliberate attempt to eradicate some events which were thought better forgotten.

The monastery is one of only two in Ladakh belonging to the Drikung Kagyu

Drikung Kagyu

Drikung Kagyu or Drigung Kagyu is one of the eight "minor" lineages of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. "Major" here refers to those Kagyu lineages founded by the immediate disciples of Gampopa while "minor" refers to all the lineages founded by disciples of Phakmo Drupa , one of the three...

, Dri-gung-pa or Drigungpa school, one of eight schools derived from the teachings of Phakmadrupa Dorje Gyelpo (1110-1170 CE).

After the monastery was built, it specialised in Digung teachings under Skyoba Jigsten Gonbo. The current head teacher is Apchi Choski Dolma and the reincarnation of Skyabje Toldan Rinpoche is the head lama.

Description

Phyang contains numerous sacred shrines inside the monastery, frescoes dating from the royal period, and a 900 year old museum which has an extensive collection of idols including a number of fine Kashmiri bronzes probably dating to the 14th century, thangkas, Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian firearms and weapons.

The Gang-Sngon Tsedup Festival is held annually from 17th day to 19th day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar

Tibetan calendar

The Tibetan calendar is a lunisolar calendar, that is, the Tibetan year is composed of either 12 or 13 lunar months, each beginning and ending with a new moon. A thirteenth month is added every two or three years, so that an average Tibetan year is equal to the solar year.The Tibetan New Year...

. On the 2nd and 3rd day of the 6th month of the Tibetan calendar Phyang serves as a venue for sacred dances.

Footnotes