Brief History of pilgrimage site Kunzangdra (cliff in shape of Kuntuzangpo)

Kunzangdra Monastery is located under Tang Gewog under Bumthang District and first founded by Terton Pema Lingpa in 1488 as one of his main residence. The name Kunzangdra derived from the cliff which looks like Kuntuzangpo (Buddha Samantabhadra), in short Kunzang refers to Kuntuzangpo and dra refers to cliff.

The pilgrimage site consist of living quarter of Terton Pemalingpa, Wangkhang, Oezerphug – the meditation cave of Pemalingpa’s son Dawa Gyeltshen, Khandro Lhakhang, Footprint of Pema Lingpa, Drangsong Latso, Stupa build by Thugsey Dawa Gyeltshen, chakhar (walking stick) of Thugsey Dawa Gyeltshen, holy water of Pema Lingpa, Holy water of Tsepamed, mani Rangjon and many more.

The cliff is not only Residence of Terton Pema Lingpa but also blessed by Guru Rinpoche and meditated at this cliff. Hence, Kunzangdra is considered as one of the four dra (cliff) of Bumthang valley blessed by Guru Rinpoche.

Brief History of Chungchen Khading Drag famously Known as Shugdra/Zhugdra.

Shugdra/Chung Drag is one of the great four cliffs (Drag) of Bumthang Valley. It was first blessed by Ugyen Guru Rinpoche as meditation cliff during his visit to Bumthang and concealed lots of treasures. Latter Tertonpa’s including Terton Pema Lingpa has discovered lots of treasures from the cliff. The cliff is located at upper Chhokhor toe under Bumthang Dzongkhag with 45 minutes’ drive from Chamkhar Town. The name Shugdra derived from Shugposhing (Juniper tree) - the walking stick of Guru Rinpoche and left at that Cliff for the benefit of Sentient beings. Hence it is called as Shug- Juniper Tree and Drag-Cliff. However some believes that it is Chung drag- the cliff looks like flying Chhung (Garuda) and some also says Zhugdra as Guru Remains there. Furthermore, there is three cliff including Drag kar Namkhai Drag, Due Dul Singye Drag, and Chungchen Khading Drag. The famously known Shugdra/Zhugdra is Chungchen Khading Dra meaning the cliff looks like flying Large Garuda.  (Chungchen- Large/Huge Garuda, Khading- flying, Drag-Cliff). Hence, it was called as Chung drag in short by local people.

In brief the sacred site contains meditation cave, hand print, holy water, foot print and body print of Guru Rinpoche and similarly foot print and holly water of Khando. If it goes in deep, the pilgrimage site takes whole day to two days.

Brief History of Singye Dzong - The mystical Lion Fortress.

There are five main sacred place of Guru Rinpoche called sacred place of body, speech, mind, qualities and activity (Ku sung thug yonten and Thinley). Singye Dzong is the most sacred place associated with activity (Thinley) and it is only one of the five main sacred place located in Bhutan while others are all in Tibet. There are eight Dzongs which are believed to be the eight manifestation of Guru Rinpoche namely Singye Dzong, Gawa Dzong, Pema Dzong, Rinchen Dzong, Tsemo Dzong, Dulwa Dzong, Namkha Dzong and Dorji Dzong. All Dongs were associated eight Duetroe (Cremation Ground) which is considered as eight great duetroe of India (Duetroe Chenpo Gay).

According to the description of the sacred places, a visit to Singye Dzong shall liberate oneself from being born in lower realms and fulfill whatever one wishes and prays for his life. The sacred place is founded by Khandro Yeshey Tshogyal and concealed Lots of Treasures by guru Rinpoche in 8^th century. Guru Rinpoche attempted to suppress the demon King, Khikharathoed, who escaped from Tibet to Khempajong and established his demon kingdom there. Hence, Guru Rinpoche followed the demon king and finally suppressed at Khempajong. Guru Rinpoche then moved to Singye Dzong and undertook intense meditation. Lots of Body prints, foot prints and hands prints were left by Guru Rinpoche and khandro Yeshi tshogyal. Moreover, countless treasures were concealed and we can still see five Phubs (religious draggers) which is revealed by from the late of singye dzong. However, one is seen incomplete with missing wing and it is believing that same lake will once again reappear at the Singye Dzong in future and Guru Rinpoche will once again visit to this place and reveal the treasure in complete form (incomplete phup will be reveal in complete form). 

Eight Dzongs

སེང་གེ་རྫོང་ནི་སེང་གེ་འགྱིང་པ་འདྲ༔

དགའ་བ་རྗོང་ནི་གླང་ཆེན་ཉལ་བ་འདྲ༔

འདུལ་བ་རྫོང་ནི་རྟམཆོག་རྒྱུགས་པ་འདྲ༔

Dorje Dzong

ནམ་མཁའ་རྫོང་ནི་བྱ་རྒོད་ལྡིང་བ་འདྲ༔

པདྨ་རྫོང་ནི་ཟླ་གམ་དམར་པོ་འདྲ།

རིན་ཆེན་རྫོང་ནི་ཕུང་བྱུང་པ་འདྲ། 

རྩེ་མོ་རྫོང་ནི་པདྨའི་མེ་ཏོག་འདྲ། 

        - Location: Khoma, Gewong under Lhuntse Dzongkhag

Brief History Goenpa Kabab Choeling and its Associated Myths.

View of Goenpa Kabab Choeling

Gonpa Karpo is also known as Goenpa Kabab Choeling and it is located under Khoma Gewog of Lhuntse Dzongkhag. It was established by Lama Choeying Rangdrol as per the prophecy of his root teacher. Hence the Goenpa was named Kabab Goenpa / Goenpa Kabab choeling, which means Goenpa was established as per the command of his root teacher. The previous life of Lama Choeying Rangdrol is one of the main disciple of Zhabkar Tsodru Rangdrol and he was sent to south by his teacher Zhabkar Tshodru Rangdrol as per the prophecy to benefit sentient beings. Then he move towards south through Lhodrak kharchu and Bumthang towards Kurtoe and he was died at Takila. After few years, his incarnation called Choeying Rangdrol was born from descendent of Terton Guru Choewang at Nyalamdung. Then he studied under Drubtob Nangdze (grub thob snag mdzad) at Khenpajong (mkhan pa ljongs) and later became main disciple of Jigme Droden Dorje (the third Petseling truelku). While Lama was he mediating at Bariphug-the opposite side of present Lhakahang, he saw a bright light twinkling opposite to his meditation cave. This light went for the three nights continuously and hence he established this Goenpa at that place where light blinks. We can still see that cypress tree behind the Lhakhang from which the light was blink while he is meditating.

New Temple of Gonpa Karp

He was root teacher of Khema Ashi Tsuendru Lhamo the queen of 1^st Druk Gyelpo and then once he was called to Bumthang by 1^st Druk Gyelpo and during which he showed lots of supernatural powers including ridding on lion and growth of statue while he do consecration. Hence, the king and the queen donated lots of land, finance and labour support to construct the Lhakahang. The main relics of this Goenpa is Chagtong Chentong in middle, Jampelyang and Tsepagmed at right, Chagna Dorje and Guru at left. People believes that those statue has grown up during his consecration and we can observe those growth while it was in old Lhakhang but due to huge maintenance done recently, now it is not possible to observe those growth. Moreover first Druk Gyelpo has also installed two small Chagtong chentong, Kanjur and Jangchub Choeten as Ku Ten, Sung Ten and Thug Ten.

Location: Under Goenpakarp, Khoma Geog under Lhuentse Dzongkhag.

Founder: Lama Choeying Rangdrol

Main Relics: Statue of Chenrigzhig (chag tong Chen tong)

Brief History of Baptong village and importance of Yuelkang Lhakhang.

Baptong Village.

Baptong village is located under Khoma Gewong and its original name is Ba’i Tong (meaning seen by cow). People of that village believes that, once the cow from Tashi Yangtse was lost and people came searching for their cow. Finally they reach to Yuelkang where present Lhakhang was located and saw their cow at that place. After that they felt that it could be better if they settle at this place and hence they came with their family and settled at this place. Since the place saw first seen by cow, they named village as Ba’s Tong (Ba means cow, Tong meaning seen and Ba’I refers to by cow in Dzalakha). Furthermore, we can still observe that the people of Yangtse and Baptong speaks same language called Dzalakha.

Yuelkang Lhakhang is located middle of the Village and it contains sacred relics called Nyongka (stupa) which is left by Tibetan Terton Lama Zhangpa. Initially Lama Zhangpa has installed this treasure inside the Stupa but latter people built small temple in place of Stupa and Nyongka was placed inside the wooden Stupa and keptkept in Lhakhang. Recently the Lhakhang was fully renovated and Nyongka was installed inside the statue of Amitabha for Security reason. In olden days when people need rain at their village, they use to pour water on Stupa and ultimately rain falls but now it is not happening as the relics was placed inside the statue.

Nyongka (Main Relics of Yuelkang Lhakhang)

Brief History of Rinchen Bumpa (the Vase of Jewel).

Rinchen Bumpa.

The sacred place Rinchen Bumpa (the Vase of Jewel) is a charming place located under Kurtoe Gewog of Lhuntse Dzongkhag. This sacred place is first blessed by Guru Rinpoche and lived for three months in eighth century. Later, it was also blessed by many Buddhist masters such as Omniscient Longchenpa, Pedma Lingpa and so on. It is very pleasing and mind-elevating place that makes ones hair stand on end when we reaches to this site. It is a place where the beings with karmic connection had attained accomplishment and is a place where every beings pay homage and make offerings cleanse the sinful deeds.

There is a white cliff bearing the shape of stupa with many facial image of wrathful and peaceful buddhas. Moreover, there is foot print of Yehsey Tshogyel, Moen Mo Tashi Khe-Doen, cave of Samten (meditation or concentration), foot prints of Guru Rinpoche, meditation cave of Khandro Yeshey Tshogyel called “point of a knife”, Chagtshel Gang “a hill of prostration”, Lu len gang “a chanting hill” and many other concealed treasures. Guru Rinpoche also said that those who reaches this place shall reborn at Ngayab Ling, the abode of Padma Sambhava and attained Buddha hood in one lifetime. If one dwells in this place, one will attain rainbow body. For those with faith, it is a place to seek a blessing of long life, wealth, fame, offspring, cattle, food and also a blessing of supreme and the common accomplishment.

Brief History of Sangye Lodru aka Sangwa Dhadru - the secrete cave of Guru Rinpoche

Sangwa Dhadrug

Padmasmabhava's Secret Cliff in Eastern Bhutan above the khoma village called Sangye Lodru is also known as Sangwa Dhadrug and people believes that it is end point of Singye Dzong where the pilgrimage is incomplete if they don’t visit Sangye Lodru during their return journey from Singye Dzong. The place was called as Sangye lodru as well as Sangye Dhadru which carries two different meaning as follows. The name Sangye meaning Buddha refers to Guru Rinpoche, Lodru means six years of retreat at that place. However from other side it was known as Sangwa Dhadru meaning Sangwa is Secrete, Dhadru means Six month where Guru meditated in this café secretly for six month.

While Guru Rinpoche was meditating at Singye Dzong, the deity of the Tshokar and Tshonag promised to remain as protective deity. However, the deity of the Tshonag, Drakpa Gyeltsen, breaking his promise and came down along the Khomachu and almost reached present day Sumpa area. Guru Rinpoche knew about it and arrived at Sumpa with supernatural power before the deity reached. The unfaithful deity, knew that Guru had arrived before him and he hide himself in the cave below Khoma village. Then Guru knew that the deity would harm the people of this village if it was left unsubdued. So he meditated in the cave above the present day Khoma village for six months without known by anyone. Thus the name of the cave came to be known as Sangwa Dhadrug. Guru Rinpoche also meditated in the cave below the village and hide many treasures that were later discovered by Tertön Ratna Lingpa. While Guru was meditating at Sangwa Dhadrug, one girl saw him and offered three bottles of fresh milk in next morning. Hence, Guru Rinpoche said NGA LA KHO WAI MO CHE DUG “there is a girl that I need”. From that incident the village below the cliff is said to be named as Khomo.

Foot Print f 100 thousand Dhakini

Guru Rinpoche and Dakinis has bleesed this place and left with many foot prints, meditation cave, Dorje of Guru Rinpoche & Tacho Bhalaha, Dakini’s Secrete BHAGA, Sung Yigi Druma and so on. People believes that if they need their baby to be boy or a girl, then they gets blessings from Dorje of Guru Rinpoche and Dakini’s secrete BHAGA accordingly.

Location: Above Khoma /Khomo village under Lhuntse Dzongkhag (15-20 minute walk from Khoma).

picture of Dorje of Guru Rinpoche & Tacho Bhalaha, Dakini’s Secrete BHAGA, Sung Yigi Druma and so on.