Tawang Monastery

Meaning

At dusk the white walls and golden roofs of the gompa rise along the ridge, and behind them the dark-blue peaks of the Himalaya hold up the sky.

Held to have been founded in the late seventeenth century by Merag Lama, this is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India. Known as Galden Namgey Lhatse, it carries the Gelug tradition, and Urgelling monastery nearby is held to be the birthplace of the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso. It is also remembered as one of the first places the Fourteenth Dalai Lama stayed on Indian soil after crossing the Himalaya in 1959, and in its prayer hall a Buddha over eight meters tall sits gazing over the valley.

Voices across time

“White crane, lend me your wings. I will not fly far — I shall circle through Litang, and return.”

Roads through this light

Field notes

Location

Tawang · India · N27.6° · E91.9°

Best time

Clear mornings of autumn and early winter, when snow peaks show beyond the ridge

Getting there

Nearly two days' mountain road up from Guwahati or Tezpur; foreign visitors need a permit.

Etiquette

Shoes are removed in the prayer hall, and the monks' hours of practice are respected.

Sources

• · Encyclopaedia Britannica
• · Incredible India (Ministry of Tourism)

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