Rinchenpong Monastery

About

Rinchenpong Monastery crowns a ridge above two neighbouring settlements, Kaluk and Rinchenpong (also spelled Richenpong), in West Sikkim, India, at an elevation approaching 1,700 metres (5,500 ft). The journey to reach it becomes its own pilgrimage: from the main Rinchenpong bazaar a mountain trail climbs through maize fields to a fork in the path, where one branch curves toward Poison Pokhri, a small lake whose name commemorates local resistance to foreign incursion, and the other ascends a staircase of stone steps to the monastery gate. Colourful prayer flags line the entrance, and the outer walls are set with spinning prayer wheels that murmur blessings for those who pass. Inside, child lamas go about their studies, for the monastery also serves as a school for novice monastics.

The main hall rewards those who make the climb with extraordinarily fine craftsmanship: the entrance doors and window surrounds carry intricate painted and carved ornamentation in many colours. At the heart of the shrine rests a remarkable Adi-Buddha image, the Primordial Buddha, depicted in blue and unadorned, shown in the Yab-Yum posture: seated in meditation while in embrace with a female consort. In Buddhist iconography this union of the masculine and feminine principles points to the inseparability of compassion and wisdom, form and emptiness. Photography inside the hall has been suspended in recent years out of respect for the sanctity of the image. From the monastery terrace, panoramic vistas stretch across the forested ridges of West Sikkim.

History

The monastery, also known as Sang Ngag Yangtse Monastery, was founded in 1730 by the Ngadakpa Lama in the village that took its name, beginning with a community of around ninety-eight lamas. It ranks as the third oldest monastic foundation in Sikkim, its early centuries coinciding with the consolidation of Tibetan Buddhist culture across the young Sikkimese kingdom. The path to the monastery still passes Poison Pokhri, a small lake whose name recalls local resistance to foreign incursion, before climbing a stone staircase to the gate.

Significance

The monastery's great treasure is its image of the Adi-Buddha, the Primordial Buddha, shown here in the rare Yab-Yum form, seated in meditation in union with a consort, a teaching in stone and paint that the deepest reality unites wisdom and compassion, form and emptiness. Photography of the image has been set aside in recent years out of respect for its sanctity. As both monastery and school for novice monks, Rinchenpong carries its lineage forward not only in ritual but in the daily life of the children who study there.

Architecture

Traditional Sikkimese Buddhist monastery architecture (gompa), timber-framed with painted eaves over a whitewashed stone base