Place · Buddhist temple group · Bhutan
Kurjey Lhakhang, Bumthang
Three temples in a row in the Bumthang valley, the oldest of 1652, built over a rock said to carry the body print of Padmasambhava — kur je means exactly that. Bumthang is where the Bhutanese account of their own conversion begins: Padmasambhava was invited by a local king, Sindhu Raja, to cure him, and the subjugation of the local deity Shelging Karpo is the founding story of Buddhism in the country. The kings of Bhutan are cremated here.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 27.587, 90.730
Worth knowing
A cypress beside the temples is said to have grown from Padmasambhava's walking stick, and the cypress is now Bhutan's national tree.
Connections (2)
- Shared sacred geographyRewalsar, Mandi
Padmasambhava's route is the thread. Rewalsar in Mandi, Tso Pema, is held to be where he was burned on a pyre that turned into a lake, and it is claimed as his birthplace region in the Himachal tradition; Kurjey in Bumthang holds the rock with his body print, where the Bhutanese account of their own conversion begins. Both are pilgrimage for Tibetans, Bhutanese and Himachalis alike, and the figure who joins them is Indian by every account of him.
- Site adjacencyJampa Lhakhang, Bumthang
Jampa Lhakhang, the 7th-century temple attributed to Songtsen Gampo, and Kurjey Lhakhang, built around the body-print of Padmasambhava, both stand in the Choskhor valley of Bumthang. They are a short walk apart on the Bumthang pilgrim circuit, not one inside the other.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Kurjey Lhakhang”. Bhutan Department of Culture records; Françoise Pommaret, Bhutan: Himalayan Mountain Kingdom.
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