Shalu
Monastery is quite close to Shigatse and I had the chance to visit it in 1998
and in 2018. It’s very old as the original building dates to 1040, but had been
restructured after an earthquake in 1329. It belongs to the Sakya Sect as
indicated by the wall color. The roof is different as compared to other Tibetan
temples. It is a Chinese roof with glazed bricks in the pagoda style.
Buton
Rinchen Drub (1290–1364), Tibet's most celebrated historian, catalogued all of
the 4569 religious and philosophical works at Shalu. He attracted lots of
intellectuals of his time both from Tibet and India to study at Shalu.
Later
Shalu monastery became an important center of esoteric studies. Alexandra
David-Neel described Tummo, which is a practice to waken an inner fire. She
also described a lung-gom-pas runner: “He seemed to lift himself from the
ground, proceeding by leaps. It looked as if he had been endowed with the
elasticity of a ball and rebounded each tine his feet touched the ground. His
steps had the regularity of a pendulum. He wore the usual monastic robe and
toga, both rather ragged. His left hand gripped a fold of the toga and was half
hidden under the cloth. The right held a phurba (magic dagger).” Alexandra
David-Neel wanted to talk to him, but was warned not to break his meditation as
this would kill him.
Nowadays
the monastery looks much more mundane, but still there is this touch of living history.
Next time in Tibet I hope to go there again.
Look a the curved roof of of glazed bricks
Ancient books
Meditating, chanting, praying and learning
An unusual Thangka
A chörten in front of Shalu monastery
Links:
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