Phuktal Monastery

INDIA, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh

The monastery was established around a natural cave in the remote Lungnak Valley of Zanskar in the early 14th century by Jangsem Sherap Zangpo, a disciple of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.
The monastery was originally a cave occupied by the Sixteen Arhats, whose images appeared on the walls. The great scholar-translators Padmasambhava and Phakspa Nestan Dusdan, as well as Marpa, are said to have resided in the cave. In the 12th century, the scholar and Tibetan translator Lotsawa Phagpa Sherab lived and worked here. It is also the location where the three eminent scholars and brothers, Dangsong, Pun, and Sum, who were believed to hold the supernatural power of flight, gave Dharma teachings.
When Zangpo arrived, they departed and left the sacred site to him. According to legend, the spiritually gifted Zangpo caused a spring to run in the cave, a tree to grow above the cave, and the cave itself to grow larger. Under his guidance, the present monastery was built. The unique honeycomb-like monastery houses a main temple, prayer rooms, a library, monks’ quarters, teaching facilities, a kitchen, the original cave, and the sacred spring. A stone tablet records the 1826 visit of Alexander Csoma de Koros, author of the first English-Tibetan dictionary.