Adventures in India

Among the rocks and barren desert plains of the Tabo Valley in India sits the Tabo Monastery. Founded over a thousand years ago, the monastery has managed to escape the influences and pressures of modern civilization. The monastery has served as a shelter and sanctuary for the cultural and religious traditions of Buddhism and has preserved its many institutions and artifacts throughout the years.

Today the monastery serves as an educational center for approximately 60 lamas, and is also the home to a priceless collection of Buddhist manuscripts and thangkas (scroll and silk paintings used as teaching tools, devotional items and to focus thoughts and intentions during prayer and meditation). There are many historical and valuable works of art including paintings and sculptures, statues and murals all under the care and preservation of the Lamas or monks who live at Tabo Monastery.

The entire structure as well as its possessions have been declared a national treasure of India and earned protection from the Archaeological Survey of India.

The building houses a massive assembly hall with 36 life size clay statues overlooking the enormous room. There are nine temples at the site as well. The Temple of the Enlightened Gods is the official name of the assembly hall and it is in the core of the monastery. The walls of the sanctum behind the assembly hall are covered in rich paintings depicting the life of the Buddha.

The Golden Temple, rumored to have once been covered in gold, was restored in the 1500s and today the walls remain covered by the wonderful murals painted at that time.

The Mystic Mandala Temple serves as the sacred place where formal initiation into the Lamas, or monk hood, takes place.

The Bodhisattva Maitreya Temple is a temple hall, vestibule and sanctum dedicated to the Bodhisattva Maitreya, whose image appears within at a staggering six meters high.

The Temple of Dromton is an intricately carved and painted temple that is considered to have been founded by an early and important disciple of the Buddhist faith.

The Chamber of Picture Treasures is simply a room covered from top to bottom in remarkable paintings all done in the Tibetan style of art.