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| (Ula Chodril Thangka Lhakhang) |
Terchen
Dorje Lingpa’s first reincarnation Tulku Chokden Gonpo (1497-1557) founded this temple in 15th
century. It is located on the upper reaches of the village of Ula under Wangdue
Phordang Dzongkhang.
It is said
that Tulku Choken Gonpo wanted to build monastery in Bhutan. In order to select
a good site he had released an arrow and a white conch from Tibet to Bhutan
with a plan to build monastery on the place where his conch lands. Few weeks
later when he personally came to look for the items, he had reached Ula village
and met an old man. When Tulku enquired
whether he had seen anything nearby, the old man replied that he had not seen
anything other than an arrow on a stone, which he could not take out. Tulku
knew that it was his arrow and follow the old man who showed him the same.
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| (The stone where Tulku's arrow was found) |
Tulku was
glad and than searched for the conch which he found at the bottom of the
village on a stone. While the conch landed on a good location on top of cliff
that spans down to Punatsangchu, Tulku felt constructing monastery below the
village was not a good idea. Without deciding the location Tulku left for
Tibet.
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| (The Conch was found on this stone below Ula village on a cliff) |
In Tibet,
Tulku was a well-known lama and was highly revered. One-day a businessman
called Norbu Zangpo invited Tulku to conduct some religious kurim and at the
end of the programme offered some goods, which Tulku categorically refused.
Norbu Zangpo was bit upset and enquired why Tulku was not accepting his
offerings or whether the offering was too little for him to accept. If that was
the case he pleaded Tulku that he will offer more. Tulku replied that he don’t
want any offering, however, if he insists he would request a favor since he has
many horses to reach sand from Lhasa to Bhutan as he had decided to construct
one monastery there. Tsongpoen Norbu Zangpo was delighted and gladly accepted and
reached 100 mules’ loads of sand to Ula Bhutan.
Tulku was
very happy for his prompt acceptance and later released a Chodril to Ula to
decide the monastery location and it landed between the conch and the arrow.
Tulku than constructed the monastery on the location where his Chodril landed in
a single day by the divinely emanated artisans, god, and demons. It is said
that the Nagas of the lower direction offered the seat of the statues. He named
the monastery as Chodril Thangkha Lhakhang.
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| (The placce where Chodril landed) |
I have
visited this sacred monastery during Zhabdrung Kouchoe and received immense
blessing from the scared nagtens. The original monastery, which was behind the
new extension that was made on the front to create space for performing
religious activities, was typical type of monastery.
The moment I
stepped inside I was totally taken to a completely new type of monastery with
huge statues place in a circular position. The main center figure is Buddha
Shakyamuni (སངས་རྒྱས་ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་),
This is a
very special and sacred monastery of Terchen Dorje Lingpa’s linage and one must
visit to feel the sacredness of the statues. All statues look wonderful as if they are going to speak. It is too beautiful to narrate in detail here. I
have spent some time inside to glance all statues with great reverence.
Please make
a point to visit this sacred monastery. You will not be disappointed. You will
be taken to a different experience of a monastery from the usual set up that
you see time and again.
