Tamzhing Lhündrup Choling, in the Tang valley of Bumthang, is the monastery founded in 1501 by the tertön Pema Lingpa, whose own wall paintings survive on its inner walls and whose lineage continues to occupy the seat.
Tamzhing Lhakhang, also spelled Tamshing and properly known as Tamzhing Lhündrup Choling (Dzongkha: gtam zhing lhun grub chos gling), is a Nyingma monastery in Bumthang, central Bhutan. It was founded in 1501 by Pema Lingpa (1450–1521), the most influential Bhutanese-born tertön of the Nyingma tradition, and remains the seat of his speech-incarnation lineage.[1]
Tamzhing stands across the Chamkhar Chhu from Kurjey Lhakhang, in the Chokhor valley near the Bumthang district town of Jakar. It is one of the few temples in Bhutan whose original wall paintings, attributed in part to Pema Lingpa himself, survive in something close to their early-16th-century state. The monastery was placed on Bhutan's UNESCO World Heritage Site tentative list in 2012.
Foundation and Pema Lingpa
Pema Lingpa was born in the Tang valley of Bumthang in 1450 and is regarded by Bhutanese tradition as one of the five "sovereign tertöns" of the Nyingma school. He is credited with the recovery of treasure texts hidden by Padmasambhava, most famously the underwater termas of Membartsho, the "Burning Lake" near Tang. He founded Tamzhing in 1501 as a residence and teaching centre, and the monastery was completed in the same year.
The temple's interior is unusual for the period. The principal images and the wall paintings of the inner sanctum (the tshogkhang) are thought to date from the foundation. Several murals are said to have been painted by Pema Lingpa personally, including a self-portrait visible to the right of the main altar. The paintings depict the lineage of the Nyingma masters and scenes from Pema Lingpa's revealed cycles, and are among the earliest surviving murals in Bhutan.[1]
The chain mail relic
One of Tamzhing's most famous relics is a heavy iron chain-mail tunic said to have been forged by Pema Lingpa himself. Pilgrims carry it three times around the inner sanctum as an act of purification, with the weight of the iron treated as a metaphor for the burden of negative karma. The tunic is one of several iron objects associated with Pema Lingpa, who is credited with ironworking among his many crafts.
Lineage and the Sungtrul incarnations
After Pema Lingpa's death at Tamzhing in 1521 the temple passed to his descendants, and the monastery was administered by family lineage rather than by a fixed monastic college for much of its history. By the 20th century it had fallen into disrepair, with parts of the courtyard used for storage. In 1959, in the wake of the Tibetan diaspora, monks from the Lhalung monastery in Tibet — itself founded by Pema Lingpa during one of his journeys north — relocated to Tamzhing and reconstituted the monk body there. Tamzhing today supports more than 95 monks under the speech incarnation of Pema Lingpa, the Sungtrul Rinpoche, the 11th of the line, born in the Chumey valley of Bumthang in 1967.[1]
Tamzhing Phala Choepa
The annual Tamzhing Phala Choepa festival is held over three days in the eighth or ninth lunar month and features mask dances revealed by Pema Lingpa as terma (treasure teachings). Several of these dances, including the Peling Cham, are unique to Tamzhing and to monasteries in the Pema Lingpa lineage; tradition holds that they preserve a more accurate transmission of the original choreography than is found elsewhere. The festival draws pilgrims from across Bumthang and from the Lhalung monk body's diaspora.
Location and access
Tamzhing is located on the eastern bank of the Chamkhar Chhu, about three kilometres north of Jakar town, on a side road close to Kurjey Lhakhang and Kenchosum Lhakhang. The site can be reached on foot from Jakar in roughly an hour, or by road. It is one of the principal stops on the Bumthang religious circuit alongside Jambay Lhakhang, Kurjey, Membartsho and the Tang valley sites.
References
- Tamzhing Monastery — Wikipedia
- Tamzhing Lhündrup Chöling Monastery — UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List
- Pema Lingpa — Treasury of Lives
- Michael Aris, Hidden Treasures and Secret Lives: A Study of Pemalingpa (1450-1521) and the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683-1706), Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Delhi, 1989.
- Karma Phuntsho, The History of Bhutan, Random House India, 2013.
- Tamzhing coverage — Kuensel
See also
Druk Wangyal Lhakhang
Druk Wangyal Lhakhang is a Buddhist temple at Dochula Pass between Thimphu and Punakha, built in 2008 by Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck to honour the fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, and the Bhutanese soldiers who served in a military operation against Indian insurgents in 2003.
places·4 min readChimi Lhakhang
Chimi Lhakhang, popularly known as the "Temple of Fertility," is a Buddhist temple situated on a hillock in the Punakha Valley of western Bhutan. Built in 1499 by the 14th Drukpa hierarch Ngawang Choegyel at the site where the eccentric saint Drukpa Kunley subdued a demoness, it is a major pilgrimage destination for couples seeking blessings for childbirth.
places·6 min readJambay Lhakhang
Jambay Lhakhang is one of the oldest temples in Bhutan, located in the Bumthang Valley in central Bhutan. Traditionally dated to 659 CE and attributed to the Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo, the temple was built to pin the left knee of a giant demoness as part of a network of 108 border-taming temples across the Himalayan region.
places·6 min readKurjey Lhakhang
Kurjey Lhakhang is a major temple complex in the Bumthang Valley of central Bhutan, renowned as the site where Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) left a body imprint on a rock while meditating in the eighth century. The complex comprises three temples spanning from the eighth to the twentieth century and serves as one of the royal burial grounds of the Wangchuck dynasty.
places·7 min readChangangkha Lhakhang
Changangkha Lhakhang is a twelfth-century Buddhist temple in Thimphu, Bhutan, perched on a ridge above the city. One of the oldest and most beloved temples in the capital, it is the traditional site where Thimphu residents bring newborn children to receive blessings and auspicious names.
places·5 min readNabji Trail
A community-based ecotourism trek through Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park in south-central Bhutan, passing through Monpa and Kheng villages between 1,000 and 1,500 metres elevation.
places·4 min read
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