Place · multi-faith sacred lake · India
Rewalsar, Mandi
Also known as Mandi, Padmasambhava on the lake, Rewalsar, Rewalsar — Tso Pema, Tso Pema
The sacred lake at Rewalsar in Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, 25 kilometres from Mandi — a shared Buddhist-Sikh-Hindu pilgrimage site around a small natural lake. In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Padmasambhava (the 8-century Buddhist tantric who introduced Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet) was said to have been reborn here as a lotus-born child (Padma-sambhava) after being burnt alive by King Mandi. The lake's 'floating islands' (phumdi-like mats of vegetation) are revered as Padmasambhava's rebirth site. The site has three Buddhist monasteries (Drikung Kagyu, Nyingma and Drukpa Kagyu), a Hindu temple to Rishi Lomas, and a Sikh gurdwara (where Guru Gobind Singh stayed in 1738). The annual Rewalsar Mela each February-March brings together all three communities. UNESCO tentative list since 2014.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 31.630, 76.830
Connections (2)
- Shared sacred geographyKhangchendzonga National Park
Rewalsar and Khangchendzonga are both Padmasambhava landscapes — a lake he is said to have turned from a pyre, and a beyul he is said to have hidden. The eighth-century figure Tibet credits with bringing Buddhism over the Himalaya is written into the terrain on both flanks of the range.
- Shared sacred geographyKurjey Lhakhang, Bumthang
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.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Rewalsar”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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