In search of magic: the Pearl of Tibet — Tsurphu

Almost all the monasteries we came across belonged to the most widespread Buddhist school, Gelugpa. But on the last day of our stay in Tibet, we went to one of the most important monasteries of another school, Kagyu. It can be safely called one of the pearls of Tibet. He was the most important point of our journey. It is not included in the generally accepted tourist route, and to visit it we received a separate permit from the Chinese authorities and paid extra for the trip.

With this article we conclude our cycle of stories about traveling to the most mysterious place on Earth.

The monastery is called Tsurphu, and this is the traditional location of the head of this school, Karmapa, the king of all yogins. This monastery is very different from others, which are more subject to the Chinese leadership. Here you can photograph everything for free, except altars. There are few tourists here, and those who come here, go consciously.

Tsurphu is located 70 km northwest of Lhasa in a windswept valley at an altitude of 4,300 meters.

It was built in 1159 by the first Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa.

At the same time, as in the case of Jokang, it was not without the geomancy of "sache". Dusum Khyenpa chose a place in the middle of the valley where the slopes of the mountains in front of the monastery were flat and covered with vegetation, and behind the monastery — rocky and inaccessible. This symbolized the soft power of the "peaceful" Buddhas and the fierce energy of the "dharma protectors", or "angry" manifestations of the Buddhas. A river flowed in the middle of the valley, which is always considered a favorable sign.

After making a ritual offering to the keepers of the area, the first Karmapa founded a monastery, which later housed about a thousand monks.

During the cultural Revolution of the 60s, like many other sacred Buddhist sites, the monastery was destroyed and rebuilt in the 80s thanks to the efforts of the sixteenth Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje.

Karmapa is called a Lama in a Black Crown. It is believed that when he achieved enlightenment in one of his past incarnations, the dakinis presented a crown made of their black hair in honor of this event.

Some of the most realized people are actually able to see this energy crown. And for everyone else, one of the Chinese emperors ordered his masters to make a copy of what he himself saw above the head of the fifth Karmapa, Deshin Shegpa.

There have always been many yogis in the Kagyu school, and Karmapa is the king of yogis.

Being yogis who have comprehended reality, Karmapas are able to change this reality at will. Sometimes it looks like a miracle. For example, the seventh Karmapa Chedrag Gyatso left his palm print right in the wall.

Karmapa became the first consciously reborn lama in Tibet. All his rebirths lived in Tsurphu, up to the sixteenth Karmapa. The throne of the next, seventeenth Karmapa is now claimed by two candidates chosen by different disciples of the previous, sixteenth Karmapa. Both of them live in India, and the monastery was temporarily left without a head.

Nevertheless, everything here is imbued with the spirit of Karmapa and other masters of the transmission line, for example Milarepa, in whose cave we managed to meditate at the very beginning of the trip. The energy of the place is indescribable!

The entire Kagyu line can be seen on the so-called Tree of Refuge with a height of more than 6 meters. All the main Kagyu teachers and the main yidams, meditation aspects are depicted here.

At the bottom, they are protected by the defenders of the line, led by the ferocious Mahakala.

In different halls there are stupas with kudungs and relics of various Kagyupin teachers and abbots of the monastery.

There is also a stupa with relics of the sixteenth Karmapa.

This is how almost all the halls of the monastery look.

In one of the halls, a throne has been preserved, on which all the Karmapas once sat. And in another, you can get a blessing with a statue of Sangye Nenpa, the teacher of the eighth Karmapa Mikye Dorje. After the death of the teacher, Mikye Dorje made this statue and filled it with relics left after the cremation of Sangye Nenpa. After that, the statue flew into the air and hung for seven days. It is still called "hanging in the air".

Each hall of the monastery is dedicated to one or another Buddha or teacher.

If desired, you can make offerings to the Buddha who liked it more or with whom there is a meditation connection. You can also donate money to a monk who sits nearby and conducts ritual pujas of this Buddha.

There are several rooms that are completely filled with statues of this or that Buddha, for example, Shakyamuni Buddha, Green Tara or, as in the photo, Avalokiteshvara. This four-armed Bodhisattva is the personification of the compassion of all Buddhas.

In some halls, the statues are simply huge.

These are offerings to local spirits and protectors.

After wandering around the monastery with Tibetan grandmothers, we climbed onto the roof to take a closer look at the traditional decoration — two deer and a Dharma wheel. When Shakyamuni Buddha gave the first teaching (or, as Buddhists say, made the first turn of the wheel of Dharma), it happened in Deer Park in Indian Sarnath. In addition to the first five disciples, two deer came to listen to the Buddha.

And a mountain goat came to our monastery dining room. What he wanted — he didn't say, probably doesn't understand Russian