Name: | Borangtse Lhakhang |
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Identity: | Lhakhang |
Level: | Registered Heritage Building |
Category: | Heritage Building |
Founder: | Lam Namkha Yoezer |
Constructed(Year|Century): | 0 | 15 |
No. of Floor | 1floor |
Main Wall | Stone wall |
Location: | Sakteng, Trashigang |
Current Use: | Lhakhang |
Ownership: | Community |
Coodinates: | 27’18’ 194” N, 091’51’515”E |
In 1347, lam Jarepa divided Tsholung Lake (an evil lake that disappeared humans into clouds) into three ethnic groups of brokpas while he was escorting the brokpas from Tibet who are now settled in Merak and Sakteng. Each lake was named after three ethnic groups of brokpas (Kom, Lon, and Rok). Kom is Sakteng, Lon is Merak and Rok is Yamarong village in Tibet. In the 15th Century Lam Lozang Tenpai Drimed, who was the reincarnation of Sakteng Kushu Guru was meditating in the forest of Tsholung with his disciple/soepen (cook) Kuenga. In one of his dreams, Lam is said to have seen his riding pony and his dog being led into the sky by Khandroms (Dakinis). Subsequently, on one of the mornings when his disciple went to fetch water, he is said to have seen three beautiful girls standing near the water source. Probably the disciple and the lam must have been fetching water from one of the three lakes which still exist on the same ridge namely Sakteng Tsho, Merak Tsho, and Tibetan Tsho. Disciple Kuenga immediately ran back and reported what he saw to his Lam. When Lam heard of what his disciple had to say to him, he sent back his disciple to check on it again. This time, the disciple saw three pieces of radish lying on the same spot where three beautiful girls were standing. He took them with him and presented them to Lam. Lam has asked his disciple to cook radish curry for all of them. While chopping the reddish, it is believed that the disciple has seen blood oozing out from the radish and so he didn’t eat it while his Lam, the pony, and the dog ate it. After the meal, Lam, his pony, and the dog started rising up into the air supernaturally. The disciple was surprised at what he was seeing and asked Lam why it is not happening to him. His lam replied, ‘’since you didn’t eat the curry, you will not be able to enter the nirvana with us, but I will pray that we meet again in our next life somewhere on the same ridge’’. Saying this, three of them flew away and disappeared into the thin air. As prophesized by Lam Lozang Toenpai Drimed, the Borangtse lhakhang was founded and constructed in the 16th Century by Lam Namkha Yoezer, the reincarnation of Lam Lozang Tenpai Drimed’s soepen/disciple Kuenga on the ridge which looks like Tashi Bumpa (Vase of luck) and named it as Tashichoeling Lhakhang. On the opposite ridge from Borangtse lhakhang, Guru goenpa has been founded by Gaylong Lozang Thabkhay who was the 8th reincarnation of Sakteng Kushu Guru in 1851, and thus, the Guru and his disciple re-united again on the same ridge as prophesized. On the same ridge little further below the Tashichoeling Lhakhang, a new Saramtse Dratsang has been established by Trulku Sangay Dorji who is the present reincarnation of Lam Lozang Toenpai Drimed’s disciple Kuenga.