Mulbekh Monastery
Encyclopedia
Mulbekh Monastery or Mulbekh Gompa is said to consist of two gompas, one Drukpa and one Gelugpa Buddhist
monastery in the Zanskar
region in the state of Ladakh
in Jammu and Kashmir
in northern India
.
s are dramatically situated at the very top of a crag 200 metres (656 ft) above the road. They were connected with the nearby palace of Rajah Chalon of Mulbekh below. They may be reached by a steep footpath winding up from behind.
The altitude of the town at the foot of the crag is given as 3,304 m. (10,839 ft), which makes the altitude of the gompas 3,504 m. (11,495 ft). Its population is given as 5,730.
Nearby are some ancient inscriptions written in Kharosthi script. There is also an edict issued to the local people to discontinue sacrificing goats by King Lde, who ruled western Ladakh c. 1400 CE, while his younger brother, Dragspa, ruled the rest.
Every year at least once or twice in each village the heart was torn out of a living goat in front of an altar. King Lde had the following inscription carved:
Sadly, the people of Mulbekh found this too onerous to follow, for beside King Lde's edict, on the same rock, is an inscription saying the order was too hard to be executed. "For what would the local deity say, if the goat were withheld from him?"
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
monastery in the Zanskar
Zanskar
Zanskar is a subdistrict or tehsil of the Kargil district, which lies in the eastern half of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The administrative centre is Padum...
region in the state of Ladakh
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
in Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
in northern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Description
The double gompaGompa
Gompa and ling are Buddhist ecclesiastical fortifications of learning, lineage and sadhana , located in Tibet, India, Nepal, and Bhutan...
s are dramatically situated at the very top of a crag 200 metres (656 ft) above the road. They were connected with the nearby palace of Rajah Chalon of Mulbekh below. They may be reached by a steep footpath winding up from behind.
The altitude of the town at the foot of the crag is given as 3,304 m. (10,839 ft), which makes the altitude of the gompas 3,504 m. (11,495 ft). Its population is given as 5,730.
Chamba Statue and Inscriptions
Just a kilometre beyond Mulbekh town heading toward Leh, is the famous Chamba Statue, a striking enormous figure carved into the rock face on the right hand side of the road. It pictures a standing Maitreya Buddha or Buddha-to-come overlooking the old trade route and modern highway. Some people believe it dates to the Kushan period in the early centuries CE. Modern scholars date it as being from around the eighth century. Unfortunately, the lower part of the statue is partly obscured by a small temple built in 1975.Nearby are some ancient inscriptions written in Kharosthi script. There is also an edict issued to the local people to discontinue sacrificing goats by King Lde, who ruled western Ladakh c. 1400 CE, while his younger brother, Dragspa, ruled the rest.
Every year at least once or twice in each village the heart was torn out of a living goat in front of an altar. King Lde had the following inscription carved:
.Oh Lama (Tsongkapa [1378-1441 CE]), take notice of this! The king of faith, Bum lde, having seen the fruits of works in the future life, gives orders to the men of Mulbe to abolish, above all, the living sacrifices, and greets the Lama. The living sacrifices are abolished."
Sadly, the people of Mulbekh found this too onerous to follow, for beside King Lde's edict, on the same rock, is an inscription saying the order was too hard to be executed. "For what would the local deity say, if the goat were withheld from him?"