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Showing posts from April, 2023

BODH GAYA

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  What is Bodh Gaya famous for? Bodhgaya is  one of the most important and sacred Buddhist pilgrimage center in the world . It was here under a banyan tree, the Bodhi Tree, Gautama attained supreme knowledge to become Buddha  the Enlightened One. Who built Bodh Gaya Temple? Emperor Asoka The Mahabodhi Temple Complex is the first temple built by  Emperor Asoka  in the 3rd century B.C., and the present temple dates from the 5th–6th centuries. What is inside this temple in Bodh Gaya? A shrine inside the temple holds a yellow sandstone statue of the Buddha encased in glass . A descendant of the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha is said to have sat until he attained enlightenment stands adjacent to the temple. The celebrated Bodhi tree still exists, but is very much decayed ; one large stem, with three branches to the westward, is still green, but the other branches are barkless and rotten. Who broke Bodhi tree? In 254 BC,  Tissarakkha, Ashoka's queen , destroyed the original Bodhi tree

DANAKOSHA LAKE

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  Lake Danakosha...Believed by many to be the sacred lake of Padmasambhava, with the Tseta(heart) Island.....According to legend, Padmasambhava was incarnated as an eight-year-old child appearing in a lotus blossom floating in Lake Dhanakosha, in the kingdom of Oḍḍiyāna. His special nature was recognized by the childless local king of Oḍḍiyāna (Bactria) and he was chosen to take over the kingdom...Padmakara returned to Uddiyana, to the island in Lake Danakosha where he practiced Secret Mantra and the symbolic language of the dakinis through which he brought the dakinis on the island under his command "Padmasambhava is said to have been born in a village near the present day town of Chakdara in Lower Dir District, which was then a part of Oddiyana....Chakdara (Pashto: چکدره‎) is a town in Lower Dir District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It is located north of Malakand on the north bank of the Swat River... It is about 130 km from Peshawar and 40 km away from Saidu Sharif.....Chakdara has

Lhakhang karpo and nagpo

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  The Lhakhang Karpo a nd Lhakhang Nagpo are two of the 108 monasteries built by SongtsenGampo, a Tibetan King in the 7th century. These temples are the guardians of the people of Haa Valley; they watch over them. The Tibetan king SongtsenGampo, when building the temples, is said to have released two doves from his consciousness, a black and a white one, to choose the perfect site to erect the temples in Haa Valley. At the time, King SongtsenGampo was on a mission to build108 monasteries in one day     The white pigeon perched at the foothills of the three magnificent mountains to the south of the Haa Dzong, commonly known as RigsumGonpo. This is the location of the Lhakhang Karpo or the White Temple. The temple’s architecture is the true depiction of Bhutanese art and culture, both on the outside and the inside. An intricately carved colossal door welcomes tourists with much grandeur to the temple. The interior of the Lhakhang Karpo (white temple) walls are decorated with paintings an