Chokling Monastery

Pema Ewan Chögyur Gyurme Ling, also known as Chokling Monastery, offers us an intimate glimpse into Tibetan monastic life as it exists today in India. To visit Chokling Gompa is at once to peer into a distant past and to witness an ancient contemplative tradition surviving with undiminished power in the modern age. Monastic communities were once the focal point of much of Buddhism in Tibet, enjoying a relationship of mutual dependence with surrounding villages, in a culture that revered the choice to devote one’s life to dharma through vows of celibacy. That reverence continues today in Bir, even amidst the many attractions of modernity and even as monks are seen talking on cell phones or riding around on motorcycles. This is easily seen in the form of arduous and elaborate drupchens, whose melodies might evoke to the casual observer, a bygone age, but to modern students of Tibetan Buddhism, they resonant deeply with a non-conceptual spirit of devotion and faith.

The Third Neten Chokling Rinpoche

Chokling Monastery sits on a former tea plantation in the northern India state of Himachal Pradesh, in the town of Bir, which is Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche’s hometown, and the place where Guna Shedra, Mangala Shri Bhuti’s study and translation school, takes place. Chokling Monastary was established by Kongtrul Rinpoche’s father, His Eminence Neten Chokling Pema Gyurme, the third incarnation of the great tertön, Chogyur Lingpa. It was founded in the early 1960′s following Chokling Rinpoche’s exile from Tibet, along with the surrounding Tibetan settlement of Bir. The initial structures were merely tents in which drupchens and daily practice took place. Over time and through many phases of construction the monastery has fully re-established itself in Bir, with a complex of impressive temples and shrine rooms, a three year retreat center, stupas and monks quarters furnished with an incredible collection of statues, thangkas, wall paintings and sculptures. This all took place whilepreserving the practice lineage, including the numerous annual drupchens that the monastery is known for.

Inner Courtyard

As the monastery was built concurrently with Bir Colony itself, it has always played an important role in the community. Many of the families in Bir came with Chokling Rinpoche when the land was first acquired and worked to establish the community including the monastery, helping it grow and flourish. Chokling monastery is currently under the guidance of the Fourth Neten Chokling Rinpoche.

Mani stone

In 2009, Khyentse Yeshi Rinpoche, one of Chokling Rinpoche’s sons, initiated a major reconstruction and expansion of the monastery. The project began by razing the monks’ living quarters in order to build improved and expanded monastic housing. At that time, the inner courtyard between the shrine room buildings and housing quarters was expanded, and on the location of the former soccer field, eight new stupas were begun. The final project currently under construction is a prayer wheel room which will house three 10 foot tall prayer wheels. As Kongtrul Rinpoche jokingly said, “the young monks are disappointed to lose their soccer field but the older monks are very happy.”

The 8 Stupas during construction

Built by local workers, both men and woman, these impressive structures include all the artistic architectural details of the Tibetan tradition. The work was being supervised by four monks from the monastery. The monks quarters is a three story U-shaped building forming three sides of the inner courtyard. All of the rooms look into the courtyard as well as out onto views of the Kangra valley.

The 8 Stupas

The eight new stupas are truly sculptural works of art. At approximately twenty five feet in height they sit on a solid brick base. All of the concrete work of the stupa itself is formed, mixed and poured by hand, by craftsmen with no more tools than would fit in your back pocket. Without a crane in sight they clamored over bamboo scaffolding carrying small metal pans of concrete and pouring it into forms made from scraps of wood. Shaping and bending the reinforcing rebar as they progressed. The final detail of intricate plastering is all sculpted by hand using wet cement and basic trowels – the result is astonishing.

Stupa detail

The mani stone wall that now sits in front of the stupas and runs their entire length is an impressive and inspiring display of devotion and artistry. But it becomes even more so by the fact that nearly all the stones were carved by one man, now in his nineties and living at the monastery. He is a simple lay practitioner who devoted his entire life to the furthering of the monastery. This is the kind of devotion that Chokling Rinpoche inspired.

In late summer of 2011 the Chokling monks were finally able to move into their new rooms. These new quarters have greatly enhanced the monks’ living situation and besides upgraded rooms, the building includes new bath and shower facilities and a new kitchen and dinning area. The expanded courtyard provides more space and opportunities for the community to gather and watch the lama dances and ceremonies, while a new statue of the Buddha sits under one of the two bodhi trees that shade the courtyard. The addition of the stupas, mani wall and prayer wheel house create an expanded kora path for the people of Bir who constantly circle the monastery. The final work on the outer path is being completed now and soon the old folks of Bir can continue their endless rounds of kora, unimpeded by rebar and rubble. This new construction furthers His Eminence Chokling Rinpocheʼs original intention of creating a community where both the secular and spiritual aspects of Tibetan life could be preserved and continue in harmony.

View into the Chokling Monestary courtyard.

The link below has some wonderful archive footage of Bir and Kongtrul Rinpoche’s family. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XzWVXLrVNE

Here is a link with information on the Neten Chokling line as told by Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche

http://www.rangjung.com/authors/Neten_Chokling_tulku_line.htm