Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
offered continuously to the local protectress Drapchi Lhamo and the site has an almost
animist feel to it.
Pabonka Monastery
One of the most ancient Buddhist sites in the Lhasa region,
Pabonka Monastery
detour from the Sera Monastery turn-off and is worth the effort.
Built on a flat-topped granite boulder said to resemble a tortoise, Pabonka may even
predate the Jokhang and Ramoche. King Songtsen Gampo built the monastery in the 7th
century and he, his Chinese wife Princess Wencheng, Tibetan King Trisong Detsen, Guru
Rinpoche and Tibet's first seven monks all meditated here at various times. The nine-
storey tower was destroyed in 841 by the anti-Buddhist King Langdharma and rebuilt in
the 11th century. The fifth Dalai Lama added an extra floor to the two-storey building. It
suffered damage in the Cultural Revolution and has undergone repairs in recent years.
The first building you come across, below the road, is the
Rigsum Gonpo Temple
, jam-
packed with shrines, whose most famous relic is the blue and gold carved mantra '
Om
mani padme hum'
('hail to the jewel in the lotus') that faces the entrance on the far side of
the hall. The central shrine contains a 1300-year-old 'self-arising' carving depicting Chen-
resig, Jampelyang and Chana Dorje (Vajrapani) - the Rigsum Gonpo trinity after which
the chapel is named. The stone carvings were buried during the Cultural Revolution and
only dug up in 1985.
Continue uphill, turn left at the row of chörtens, and follow the road clockwise around
the Pabonka rock (said to represent a female tortoise) to the
Palden Lhamo Cave
on the
west side, where King Songtsen Gampo once meditated. Images inside are of Songtsen
Gampo (with a turban), his two wives, Guru Rinpoche, Trisong Detsen (in the corner) and
a
rangjung
(self-arising) rock carving of the protectress Palden Lhamo.
Pabonka Podrang
sits atop the ancient rock. There is nothing to see on the ground
floor, but the upper floor has an intimate assembly hall with a 'self-arising' Chenresig
statue hidden behind a pillar to the right. The inner protector chapel has a statue of red-
faced local protector Gonpo Dashey Marpo (second from the right). The four-pillared
