Serlung Pekar Choeling Buddhist Institute, (Dzongkha: གསེར་ལུང་དགོན་འཛིན་འདུས་སྡེ་ལུང་རྟོགས་ཆོས་གླིང་) also known as Silung Goenpa, is a 600-year-old monastery in Dawakha, Paro, Bhutan, and the seat of Thang Thong Gyalpo (Dzongkha: ཐང་སྟོང་རྒྱལ་པོ། ལྕགས་བཟོ་པ།), also known as The Bridge Builder. Gyalpo is legendary as the first to construct suspension bridges using iron chains. He built a total of 58 bridges across Tibet and Bhutan.[1]
The monastery is also known for its lake, which is believed to be sacred and the focus of a ritual held every three years that is led by a female shaman (pawo).[2]
The monastery was handed over to the Dratshang Lhentshog by the public in 2005.[3] Her Majesty the Royal Grandmother, Ashi Kesang Choeden Wangchuck ( Bhutan: ཨ་ཞེ་སྐལ་བཟང་ཆོས་སྒྲོན།)funded a thongdrel(མཐོང་གྲོལ) for the monastery in 2015, which took one year to complete.[4]
The monastery housed just 16 monks in 2015[4] but has since been expanded. Tshogki lopen(ཚོགས་ཀྱི་སློབ་དཔོན།) Sangay Khandu and Khepo Karma Loday donated nu 160 million for construction of a four-storey multipurpose hall,[5] which was consecrated in October, 2023, by the Je Khenpo.[5]
Since 2018, it has been used as a summer residence for the pasakha monks and monastery was established as a Goenzin Dratshang. At that time, the principal of the monastery was Kuenzang Tobgay Namgyel, who was the first principal of Goenzin Dratshang. There were other heads before that, but the monastery was not a Goenzin Dratshang until then.
The old Tshokhang houses only 60 monks which is why the new Tshokhang was constructed. Hostels around the Tshokhang are still under construction. On the ground floor, in the Great Hall, the main sacred object is CHOE -LONG -TRUEL-SUM (the Buddha, Zhabdrung and Guru Rinpoche ) The first floor has a library, study room and offices, the second floor has rooms for teachers and senior monks. The third floor is a Dolma (GreenTara སྒྲོལ་ལྗངས) altar. Currently there are 250 monks including teachers at the institute.[3]
In 2023, the World Wildlife Fund in collaboration with Tarayana Foundation, funded a Nu 1.3 million project to provide water to around 254 households in the Dawakha gewog, as well as Serlung Monastery, providing them with clean drinking water on tap.[6]
- ^ Ping, Chow (8 December 2021). "Thangtong Gyalpo is more than just a legendary iron bridge builder of Bhutan". Daily Bhutan.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Wangchuk, Galey (11 July 2024). "Tso Mem Go-ni: Propitiation of Mermaid". ICH Links. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b "HH the Je Khenpo consecrates facility at Buddhist Institute in Paro". BBSCL. 2023-10-03. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
- ^ a b not stated (3 July 2015). "Silung Pekar Chhoeling Goenpa gets a new thongdrel". Bhutan Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Newspaper, Bhutan's Daily. "Picture story". Kuensel Online. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
- ^ Newspaper, Bhutan's Daily. "Innovative water scheme transforms lives in Dogar". Kuensel Online. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
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