Ging Gompa

Sangchen Thongdrol Ling ( gsang chen mthong grol gling) monastery is located at Ging, at about 10 km from the town of Darjeeling. It is one of the oldest monasteries in Darjeeling subscribed to the Nyingmapa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. On historical grounds, the monastery is still under the administrative control of the Government of Sikkim. The monastery sits on a gentle slope at the end of a rolling hill and is popularly known as Ging Gonpa. In Tibetan, dgon pa literally means a 'wilderness' or a 'solitary place'.[1]

At first sight, the monastery appears to be a relic of a flourishing Buddhist culture of an ancient past, possibly an epicenter of the way of life of the humble, religious, and hard-working, agrarian people who lived under its sphere of influence. These people had very little contact with the outside world and dedicated their lives towards a humble living and practicing the ‘dharma’. In Tibetan, ‘Thongdrol’ means ‘Liberation through seeing’, and ‘ling’ means ‘an island’ or a ‘pristine garden’. A Sangha of dharma practitioners, cut off from the world, must have been more interested in ‘seeing’ what was inside the inner world and be liberated through it. To a sensitive visitor, the ineffable peace and the intense spiritual aura of this ancient monastery are inescapable. The place has a great spiritual vibration, which soothes the very soul of a seeker.

One of the most striking features of the monastery is the presence of an Idol of the grand patron saint of Denjong I.e. Gyalwa lhatsun chenpo. He was the one who finally institutionalized the inseparable bond of brotherhood between the Lhopas (Sikkimese Bhutias) and the Monpas (Lepchas) that had been sworn at the historic oath-taking ceremony at Kabi-Longtsok in North Sikkim somewhere in the 13th century. In the year 1642, he unified the country and established the Namgyal Dynasty. He also established the first and the oldest monastery in the history of Sikkim, Dupde Gonpa, in the year 1701 at Yuksum.[2]

The principal abode of Sikkim is “Gang Chen Zod Nga” who was entrusted as the guardian God of Denzong by Guru Padmasambhaba. The mountain was named after the name of the God as Khanchanzonga. It literally means “the five repositories of the ledges of the great snow”. Lhatsun Chenpo revealed the “Denzong Lamyig” of Guru Rimpoche which describes and explains “the five repositories”.[3]

Regarded as the supreme saint, his idols adorn the shrines of all Sikkimese monasteries having royal patronage. He also composed the ‘Riwo Songchoe’, a smoke offering to the mountain practices, which is practiced by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, even today. Since Sangchen Pemayangtse Monastery is the seat of the Gyalwa Lhatsun Chenpo and the direct lineage holder of this great saint, Gying Gonpa is by default his seat as well. The blessings of the great saint reverberates in the very stones, bricks, and mortar that give form to the soul of Gying monastery.

The venerable S Mahinda was a Buddhist monk and a poet in Sri Lanka who was originally from Sikkim. After Sri Lanka gained independence on 1948, he was acknowledged as a national hero given his inspiring patriotic poems and other works of literature. The scholar Pema Wangchuk Dorjee, in a publication in the "Bulletin of Tibetology" establishes that S Mahinda Thero's father was the head monk of the Sangchen Thongdrol Ling monastery and how he despaired when the British forced him to shift the Monastery to Ging in 1879. The scholar also argues that since the "Shalngo" family (the family to which S Mahinda Belonged) shares its bloodline to the royal family of Sikkim they would have been more closely associated with Ging Monastery, which is a branch of the Pemayangtse monastery. S Mahinda's brother Kazi Dawa Samdup is also supposed to have spent his childhood here. The details of the association have been teased out in subsequent Sri Lankan sources as found by the said scholar. This episode of conflict between an aboriginal-Buddhist culture and the alien British-culture was too good to be ignored by the Sri Lankan authors who were also struggling for independence from a foreign Christian rule.[4]

Colonel Mainwaring mentions a Lepcha community of about around a hundred people in the present Gymkhana Club area and about some Bhutia settlement including a monastery on the observatory hill somewhere around 1765.[5] The Royal History of Sikkim, however, asserts that the establishment of such a monastery must be earlier than 1765. According to the royal authors of the Sikkimese Court, the monastery was a branch of Pemayangtse belonging to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Wangdu Dorje Ling (dbang 'dus rdo rje gling) was the name of the site given. The monastery was desecrated and destroyed somewhere around 1788 when the Gurkha troops invaded the land and took control. In 1817 the invading Gurkha army was driven out by the British East India Company during the Anlgo-Gurkha War and the territory was rightfully returned to the Raja of Sikkim in the hopes of gaining a trade route to Tibet in exchange.[6]

After Darjeeling was handed back to Sikkim, the Buddhist monks returned from Sikkim in 1818 and the Lamas from Pemayangtse established the Sangchen Thongdrol Ling (gsang chen mthong grol gling) monastery. It was initially built (or re-built) in 1818 at the western slope below the observatory hill (present location of Gorkha Rang Manch Bhavan).[7] In 1835 Darjeeling was taken on rent by the British from the Raja of Sikkim to establish a sanatorium. After the British settled down in Darjeeling they laid the foundation stone of the St. Andrews Church in 1843 just above the Sangchen Thongdrol Ling Gompa. The church was damaged in an earthquake and was re-built in 1873.[8] It is believed that the British found the sound of the morning and evening rituals of the monastery quite annoying and hence decided to cause the monastery to shift to a new location with the plea that the area would be developed into a secular public park. Hence, around 1879, Sangchen Thongdrol Ling Monastery was relocated to Gying at the apparent request of the British authorities and thus clearing the space and establishing the Victoria Pleasance Park (presently Gorkha Rang Manch Bhavan) in its place.[9] This chain of events would seem to suggest that the original monastery on top of observatory hill, consequently destroyed by the invading Gurkha army, was rebuilt at the Gorkha Rang Manch Bhavan location in 1818 by the lamas of Pemayangtse and finally relocated to Ging in 1879 on being insisted by the British rulers. This hypothesis has also been forwarded by Diki Rhodes and Nicholas Rhodes in their book “A Man of the Frontier: S. W. Laden La (1876-1936): His Life and Times in Darjeeling and Tibet.”[10] However, a stronger case can only be made given new pieces of evidence support the hypothesis in the future. Presently, as far as popular belief goes the Gompa originally built on the observatory hill is thought to be the Bhutia Busty Monastery (belonging to the Karma Kagyu Sect) which is also popularly famed as the oldest monastery in Darjeeling.

On the signboard hung above the entrance of the Gying monastery, the year of establishment of the gonpa is written as 1818. There is an official document vide which states that the land on which the monastery is presently located was granted to the lamas of Pemayangtse in 1879. This is the "Freehold grant" given by the Lt. Governor of Bengal to the Lamas of Pemayangtse, Sikkim vide deed dated 28.2.1879. It is recorded that, "19 acres of land at Ging bounded on the North-east, the eastern Lebong road, North and west, western Lebong road and south leading from Darjeeling to Rangeet, South and South West Government Ging road from Western Lebong to Darjeeling road" given to build the Ging monastery belonging to Lamas of Pemayangtse monastery in West Sikkim. This document is still being maintained at the archives of the Ecclesiastical Department of Sikkim. So, it can be accepted for a fact that the monastery was built by the Lamas of Pemayangtse not later than 1879 at its present location at Ging.

This monastery was directly looked after by the Darber of Sikkim. As per the Darber's notification No. 464/J dated 9.5.1933 ( in Tibetan ) the control of the monasteries at Ging and Bhutia Busty in Darjeeling were entrusted to the Judicial Secretary of the Darber which is now carried out by The Ecclesiastical Affairs Department. The appointment of head lama was also regulated to be deputed from Pemayangtse monastery. The last head monk Phutuk Bhutia was also appointed by the Pemayangtse Monastery of West Sikkim. The Sikkim government sanctioned a monthly remuneration of Rs 6,000 to run the monastery and Rs 5,000 for the upkeep of the student monks.[11] After his death on January 25, 2011, no incumbent was appointed to fill up the vacancy. The Monastery is virtually left to its own fate and with it an important part of the history of Sikkim and Darjeeling as well. Moreover, the 19 plus acres of land that originally belonged to the monastery have been drastically reduced due to the numerous encroachments. To make matters worse the September 2011 earthquake damaged the old and weary structures of the monastery immensely. However, with a grant of funds from the Ecclesiastical Affairs Department of Sikkim renovation work has been done.

The late Head Lama of the monastery was quoted in The Telegraph newspaper[12] as having had heard from his elders that Gying Monastery was re-built, from its original location, somewhere in 1818, at a place where the present Gorkha Rang Manch Bhavan is situated. He lamented how the monastery had to be shifted from such a prominent location in 1879 as the Britishers residing in the area were said to be disturbed by the blowing of conch shells and the loud sounds of the Lhabha and Gyaling in the early hours and the evening.[13] Old-timers reminisce how the head lama rode his horse to Darjeeling town to attend religious festivals and meetings of importance to which he was often invited as a man of significance in the community.

A belief shared by the locals is of a headless Djinn who rides a horse and is the guardian deity of the monastery. It is said that this djinn constantly watches over the Gonpa and woe unto those who desecrate this holy place. About a hundred meters towards the graveyards are the remains of an ancient stupa from whose heart grew a tree, which was believed to be the abode of the djinn. Parents restrained their children from going near it from dusk till dawn, lest the guardian deity takes their child away for good.

• Darjeeling Unlimited
• Coverage on Ging Gonpa
• Places of interest
• News on Ging gonpa
• List of Religious Institutions in Sikkim
• Biography on life of Sonam Wangfel Ladenla
• Bulletin of Tibetology