Tsuglagkhang- McLeod Gunj

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Tsuglagkhang is the main temple complex in McLeod Gunj, I had heard. For most of us in India temples are synonymous with architecture that dates back atleast 5 centuries & even if the temple is new no effort is spared to replicate its predecessors. So I walked up the concrete stairs of Tsuglakhang with a strange sense of anticlimax, forgetting that this was built by a people and culture in exile. But that said, there was no mistaking the sense of sacred in the open terraces of the temple and the sanctum sanctorum. Here the Silences were at home, as monks went about their prayers undisturbed by the constant stream of tourists.

Stupas : "The Tibetan Stupa is a precise traditional structure that transforms and harmonizes imbalances in elements and energies.It is a symbol of the enlightened mind of the Buddha and of our own potential as human beings. The form and contents of the stupa expresses the balance and purification of the five basic building blocks of the universe: earth, water, fire, air and space and also the wisdom and compassion of Buddha nature, the true nature of all living beings.more about stupas" Open terraces
This faced the main sanctum sanctorum...

....and held numerous little brightly polished lamps ready to be lit.

The main temple houses larger than life statues of the Buddha, Padmasambhava and Avalokiteshwara.