History

Naksa Chholing has watched over our village of Lho for more than eight hundred years. The stories of how it came to be are still told among us, and I am glad to share a few of them with you.

Our elders tell that Chodak Gyaltsen threw two flying stones from the hill of Gungsyu. They fell where the monastery now stands and traced a long line across the ground. As one stone flew, a woman working in the fields struck it with her cloth, and there it came to rest, where it can still be seen to this day.

The stones settled in eight places, and where each one fell we raised a stupa. This is why the monastery is long in shape, and why the eight stupas stand around it still.

There is also the story of the gold. A herder feeding flour to his yaks once saw a great stone turn to gold. He marked it with his shoes to return for it, but when he came back the gold had vanished, and only what had caught on his laces remained. This he offered to the monastery, and as it was placed upon the face of Guru Padmasambhava, the image is said to have spoken, asking that it adorn the figures to his left and right as well.

Today our monastery is built of mud and stone beneath a roof of zinc, home to some seventy lamas and four hundred ropani of land. We keep ancient wall paintings, ritual masks and scriptures written in gold, and each year the whole of Lho gathers here for the sacred cham dances. You are always welcome to make the climb and join us.