Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
are traditionally worn during a festival on the eighth day of the fourth month (the festival
clothes are in a metal box in the corner) but there are currently not enough monks to hold
the celebrations. Snarling stuffed wolves hang from the ceiling of the protector chapel next
door. Just behind here is the Jagji Lhakhang.
Down in the centre of the village is the renovated
Tashikang Tsar
, the residence of the
local reincarnation Tsedru Rinpoche, who died in 2007 and whose body was laid to dry for
three years under a pile of salt before being entombed in a chörten in the monastery's
Kumbun Lhakhang.
Talung Monastery is 60km north of Lhundrub, over the 4845m Chak-la. It's a 4km de-
tour west of the main road.
Sili Götsang
BUDDHIST, MONASTERY
A 4km drive north of the turn-off to Talung brings you to Sili Götsang, an amazing
eagle's-nest hermitage perched high above the main road. The monks at Talung have re-
cently renovated the hermitage.
Many of the chapels have murals of the main Kagyud teachers - Tiropa, Naropa, Mil-
arepa and Marpa. In the assembly hall ask to see the giant arrow said to have belonged to
medieval trader Tsongpon Norbu Tsangpo. Also here is the meditation cave of the site's
founder, Tangbu Rinpoche, as well as several sacred rocks.
A new road climbs for 2km to the base of the hermitage, from where it's a 20-minute
walk. The village at the base of the hill was moved here after old Phondo village was
flooded by the new dam and reservoir.
Reting Monastery
Elev 4100m
Pre-1950 photographs show
Reting Monastery
(Rèzhèn Sì; admission ¥30)
sprawled grace-
fully across the flank of a juniper-clad hill in the Rong-chu Valley. Like Ganden Monas-
tery, it was devastated by Red Guards and its remains hammer home the tragic waste
caused by the ideological zeal of the Cultural Revolution. Still, the site is one of the most
beautiful in the region. The Dalai Lama has stated that should he ever return to Tibet it is
at Reting, not Lhasa, that he would like to reside.
