Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

[1] The Nachung Tsemo RiNa chung rtse mo ri and the Rigo GomaRi ’go sgo ma.

[2] According to an informant, GomdepaSgom sde pa (1532-1592) was given permission to build the hermitage by the Third Dalai Lama (Dalai Lama Kutreng SumpaDa lai bla ma sku phreng gsum pa). The monastery, by order of the Dalai LamaDa lai bla ma himself, was to specialize in the ritual practices of the Medicine Buddha (MenlaSman bla). This informant claims that when GomdepaSgom sde pa decided to go back to his home region in eastern Tibet, he asked the first Khardo LamaMkhar rdo bla ma to take responsibility for the monastery. However, the first Khardo LamaMkhar rdo bla ma, Khardo Zöpa GyatsoMkhar rdo bzod pa rgya mtsho (1672-1749), lived almost one hundred years after GomdepaSgom sde pa, making this scenario impossible.

[3] The number of monks at the time it was a male monastery is based on an oral account by a former monk of KhardoMkhar rdo monastery.

[4] That is, after 1706, the date of the founding of Khardo Hermitage, and before the founding of NenangGnas nang. (To go to the NenangGnas nang webpage now, click here).

[5] This is according to an oral account by a former KhardoMkhar rdo monk. One must be careful about claims like this, however, for they sometimes serve as justification for bringing independent nunneries into the control of a male authority figure.

[6] On this event, see the Introduction to the Hermitages.