There are many stories of wondrous miracles which took place there, such as Padmasambhava's footprint in the solid rock wall of a cave as well as legends of how he created the very lake itself.
The whole area is full of temples of not only Buddhist persuasion but of Hindu and Sikh as well. The place is rich with devotion, and, if the Lonely Planet guide book is a credible source, has been ruled by many different peoples over its long history. The first thing you notice as you approach along the windy hill side road is an approximately 100 foot tall statue of Padmasambhava gazing down over the lake. Upon seeing the statue I felt simulatiously in awe and like I had made it to the Buddhist version of Disney Land.
Accommodation is scattered around the lake, and Corey and I chose to stay at the Nyingma monastery by the lakes edge partly because the price was right and partly because we wanted to investigate a stupa which was built on their property by Trungpa Rinpoche after he escaped from Tibet and before he moved to the west. We both seemed to be a little startled by what I described as being "back in India" after our somewhat mythical stay in the mountains. Our room was mediocre at best, and it appeared to be a theme in that monastery as many things were left unattended. Not least of which was the stupa which was practically renovated on top of while rubble surrounded the rest and cobwebs sealed the cracks in the rusty defunct door. India's special ability to combine the sacred and profane without apology.
Despite the pain of alternation we enjoyed our stay there quite a bit and there was certainly something intriguing about the place. We also happened to be there on Trungpa Rinpoches Paranirvana which pleased me immensely. After spending the better part of the day trying to hunt out these caves using the conflicting and basically useless information that most people where giving us, we found a quite place on the back side of the hills facing the unthinkably large mountain range which stand as the gateway to Tibet and sat for a while.
After just a couple of days we had to head north on a four hour local bus ride to visit my extended family Noedup and Rinzin Ronge. Both of them had trained as Thangka (traditional Tibetan Buddhist scroll paintings) painters, and after working for many years Noedup followed his dream to create a painting school or as he told me, "Some people don't know how to retire."
Inaugurated as the Shambhala Arts School, it is set in a town called Bhuntar which also has the only airport in that area. The hospitality was amazing, especially the morning and afternoon tea which was brought to us where ever we happened to be on the compound. We spent most of our time catching up we each other and walking around the property.
It turns out that the land which the school is on was actually donated by a family friend and teacher to the Ronge family named Chogyen Rinpoche. His story is an interesting one because he was born an Indian national in the northern part of Himachal Pradesh where there is a long history of Indians practicing Tibetan Buddhism as it used to be a part of Tibet a long time ago. So right outside of the painting school is a very beautiful monastery in the later stages of construction. The highlights of my time there would have to be playing with the Didi's children who call Noedup grandpa and a spontaneous final banquet the night before we left where we got a traditional drinking lesson from a visiting Bhutanese sculptor who was working on some projects for Noedup. One drink when you first see each other, another to honor the celebration, another after you finish dinner and finally one for the road. We all sprung into a talkative and festive mood and I was so glad to have gotten to know these men on a deeper level then ever before.
Our next task was to get from the top of the subcontinent to the bottom by way of an overnight bus to Delhi followed by a domestic flight to Goa (spending five day there to you know just check it out) and finally a train down to Kerala. After hearing so many positive things about southern India, I was very excited to go and continue our rumblings across The Great Mother.
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