Place · Buddhist monastery · India
Ki Monastery, Spiti
Also known as Key Gompa, Key Gompa (Gelug), Ki Monastery, Lahaul, Spiti, Spiti, Lahaul-Spiti
The Ki Monastery at Spiti in Lahaul and Spiti district, Himachal Pradesh, at 4,166 metres — the largest and oldest Buddhist monastery in Spiti, dating to around 1,000 CE. The monastery belongs to the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and houses about 300 monks. The gompa sits on top of a 850-metre hill at the confluence of the Spiti river and the Gyundi river, with the medieval monastic complex built up through centuries of expansion. The monastery has been attacked and partly destroyed multiple times by Mongol raids (17-century), Dogra invasions (1835), Sikh forces (1841), and a 1975 earthquake. The current structure incorporates many layered reconstructions. The monastery is a key stop on the Spiti Valley Buddhist monastic circuit. The annual Ki Chaam festival each June-July (masked dance performance of Padmasambhava legends) draws over 10,000 pilgrims.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 32.299, 78.014
Connections (2)
- Companion in the same setTabo Monastery, Spiti
Ki and Tabo are Spiti's two principal monasteries, thirty kilometres apart on the same river and as different as monasteries get. Tabo is flat mud-brick on the valley floor with its eleventh-century interior intact; Ki is piled up a conical hill in layers because it was repeatedly sacked and rebuilt on its own ruins.
- Companion in the same setDhankar Monastery, Spiti
Dhankar and Ki are both Spiti cliff monasteries and both are structurally precarious — Dhankar stands on eroding conglomerate above the Spiti and Pin confluence and is on the endangered list, its community largely moved to a new building below. It was the fort and seat of the Nono, Spiti's ruler.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Key Monastery”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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