West Bengal Bhutia Busty Monastery
Bhutia Busty Monastery is one of the Buddhist shrines or monasteries in India, located in the state of West Bengal. Other name for this monastery is Karmaa Dorjee Chyoling Monastery, which belongs to the Red Hat Sect of Buddhist Lamas. Bhutia Busty Monastery is situated about 8 kms from the hill city of Darjeeling and is said to have a history linked to the city. The exact location of this monastery is in the Bhutia Busty, or locality, which is about 1.5 kms away from the mall at Chowrasta. It is said that the monastery has the original copy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Mural paintings are a common finding inside the monastery, which is a spectacular vision, built with a variety of sikkimese and Tibetan styles.
History
If the earliest history is taken into account, regarding the establishment of the Bhutia Busty Monastery, then it would be the oldest in the region of Darjeeling. The very first reference of the setting up of a monastery was on the Observatory Hill, presently where there is the Mahakal temple. This monastery was built in the year 1761 by Rinzing Lama Dorje. When the Gorkha invasion had occurred in 1815 on the state of Darjeeling, the monastery was completely destroyed. In 1861, it was restored but had to be shifted to the present location in 1879, due to plenty of disturbances. But ill fatedly, the monastery was almost completely damaged during the earthquake of 1934 and was rebuilt at the same location under the patronage of the King of Sikkim, Late Chogyal Dharmaraja. The name of Darjeeling has been derived from the original name of the Monastery, when it was located on the Observatory Hill, which was named as Place of the Thunderbolt or Darjeeling as Dorjee means thunderbolt and ling means resting place. The Bhutia Busty Monastery has another branch called the Ging-Lamahatta Gompa, which is funded by Government of Sikkim.
Architecture
Structure of the Bhutia Busty Monastery is quite attractive and nothing less than awesome in this beautiful hill station of Darjeeling. Its architectural style has been taken from the sikkimese and Tibetan style, with Buddhist tradition being followed religiously. It belongs to the Red Hat sect of Buddhism, although it has links with the Nyingma and Kagyu sects also. The main prayer room of Bhutia Busty Monastery is a sight to behold. In the front are the sculptured image of Buddha and various photographs of Dalai Lama. Towards one side of the room is the picture of Tara Devi, while a huge image of Goddess Lakshmiswari is also found, who is believed to have thousand hands and thousand eyes. On the wall opposite to these images, there are beautiful murals which project the life of Buddha, although these may look like paintings. They have been actually drawn with the different colored powdered stones and some portions have been made with gold and silver dust. These murals have a special shine to them, a feature rarely found in any other murals. When one goes out of the prayer room, a verandah is found, one side of which has a large drum with inscriptions written all over it, which can be read by rotating. The other side has stairs which goes towards the living quarters of the monks. Murals are also found on the walls of the verandah, but they do not have precious elements like those inside the monastery. Rest of the monastery is quite simple in looks, but the peace and serenity has been providing ethereal calm and bliss to the devotees.
Reaching There
One can reach the Bhutia Busty Monastery by walking down the 1.5 kms path or can travel on jeeps, which is quite near to the Chowrasta Mall in the city of Darjeeling. Along this route, there are well crafted and designed gate like huge structures. Tourists can travel to Darjeeling through various means, by road, rail and flights. After visiting the monastery, one can climb back the steep trail or can take another downhill path, which also has some 150 – 200 stairs cut on the rocks or take a short cut and reach Lebong, from where taxis, jeeps and autos are available to travel back about 7 kms to Chowk Bazaar of Darjeeling.
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