The front façade of Garu Nunnery (Garu Gönpa).

Garu Nunnery (Garu Gönpa), one of the oldest nunneries in the Lhasa area, is located northwest of Sera at the western end of the Nyangdren Valley. It takes about two hours to walk to Garu from Sera. The GaruGorge is relatively remote and quite beautiful. The area below the nunnery is pasture land, and is used by the nuns to graze their one hundred-plus head of yaks.2 These pastures gradually slope upward (north) to the hermitage (ritrö), which is located at the base of a very rocky portion of the northern mountains next to a stream. The nunnery faces south towards Lhasa, and it affords one of the most beautiful long-distance views of the city and of the Potala.

The word garu derives from gar, which means “dance.” The famed Indian master Pa Dampa Sanggyé (b. eleventh century) saw ḍākinīs dancing at the spot where the monastery now stands, and gave it this name.

As is the case with most religious institutions in the Lhasa Valley, the natural landscape surrounding the site is imbued with religious significance. The resident nuns associate several of the mountains near the nunnery with different deities:

• The peak northwest of the hermitage is called the Palace of Cakrasaṃvara (Demchokgi Podrang)
• Three rock outcroppings just north of the nunnery are called the Three Protectors (Riksum Gönpo)
• A flat cliff-face on a mountain northwest of the site is called the Mirror of Vajrabhairava (Jikjekyi Melong)
• Another peak northeast of the nunnery is identified as the Soul-Mountain of Mañjuśrī (Jampelyangkyi Lari)

A short history of the nunnery identifies the various sites around the nunnery more extensively (though somewhat differently) than the oral account:

The mountain in back [of the nunnery] is called “the Soul-Mountain of Tārā” (Taré Lari). Near that a [rock outcropping] that has the shape of a right-turning white conch shell is clearly visible. The western mountain is called “the Soul-Mountain of Mañjuśrī” (Jampelyangkyi Lari), and it has splendid pastures and rock-faces. At the foot of that mountain there is a “storehouse of sindhura”3 that emits sindhura on some holy days. On some occasions the sound made by a white conch4 can also be heard coming from the side of that mountain. To the right of that mountain is a rock-face that is considered to be a self-arisen image of Vajrabhairava because it resembles the body of the deity. To the left is an imposing mountain whose combination of meadows and rock-faces are considered to form a self-arisen image of Guhyasamāja. To the northeast is “the Soul-Mountain of the Arhats” (Neten Lari) that has amazingly designed rock formations. To the east is a mountain known either as “the Parasol” (Dukpé Lari) or as “Mañjuśrī Peak” (Jampel Lari).5

The entire area around the nunnery is said to be hospitable to a variety of wildlife. The various animals that live here, it is said, are unafraid of the human inhabitants of the site, occasionally even entering into the nuns’ rooms. The area is also filled with a variety of wild flowers and herbs. These are collected as the ingredients used in Tibetan medicine, and it is not uncommon for Lhasa physicians to bring their students to the area around Garu to teach them the art of identifying and collecting medicinal plants.

Garu Nunnery is one very large compound enclosed by a perimeter wall. This larger compound contains within it several sub-compounds or complexes of buildings. At the very center of the nunnery is the largest and most important complex that contains the main temple, the kitchen, and several small chapels – a Scripture Temple (Kangyur lhakhang), a butter-lamp offering house (chömé khang), and a building where the nuns take turns keeping watch at night. These various structures, together with two wings of nuns’ rooms, form the central courtyard of the hermitage. These buildings also appear to be the oldest in the hermitage, and the nuns themselves state that most of the additional wings of living quarters located at the four corners of the larger compound were added later as the nunnery grew.

The front of the main temple.

To the north of – that is, just behind – the main temple there is a very long wing of nuns’ rooms. There are also different complexes of nuns’ rooms built around central courtyards at the northeast, southeast, and southwest corners of the monastery. The buildings at the northwest corner of the monastery, the nuns say, were used for visiting dignitaries; some of these may have also served as residences of senior nuns.

There are other important sites and minor structures outside of the walls of the main compound:

• East. Along the eastern edge of the nunnery there is a small park that contains a public performance space. Lay people bring picnics and spend the day here when they come for worship (chönjel). On special occasions the raised concrete dais in the center of the park is used as a stage for folk opera or other performances. At the northern edge of that park are a stūpa and a guest house. In 2004, the latter had just recently been built.
• West. A stream runs along the western edge of the nunnery. The sound of the rushing water is said to resemble the sound of the “Three-Oṁ Dhāraṇī of the Queen Dorjé Tsünmo.” Near the place along the stream where the nuns come to collect the water, one can clearly see a self-arisen image of the letter “ba” on the side of a boulder. This is the seed syllable of Dorjé Tsünmo.6 Two mani wheels (mani khorlo) have been built over the stream; they are made to turn by the power of the rushing water.
• South. Several small shrines are found just outside the southern perimeter wall of the nunnery. One of these, called the Damala Nyak, marks the spot where Pa Dampa Sanggyé heard the word “dama.” Another is said to mark the spot where he received an offering of milk from a magical white cow that was a Buddha-emanation, and near to this is the boulder with the self-arisen letters “a ma” into which the cow dissolved. (See below for more detailed accounts of the narratives related to these various sites.)
• North. At the northern edge of the nunnery there is relatively little – only one small shrine to a Tenma deity, and a few boulders with self-arisen images.

The park and performance area in the foreground, with the guest house and stūpa behind it.

About one kilometer south of the monastery, just off the main road, is a small shrine that contains a self-arisen image of one of the eyes of Cakrasaṃvara (Demchok).7

Almost all of the statuary and art inside the temple is new, but Garu is unusual insofar as we have some idea of the images that existed inside the main temple prior to 1959. That main temple was a “twelve pillar” temple,8 and the central image on its main altar was a Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara, one-story tall. To the left was a smaller Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara figure and to the right was a statue of Pa Dampa Sanggyé when he was an eight-year-old child.9 On his lap was kept a manuscript text of a prayer (about ten folios in length) said to have been written by Pa Dampa Sanggyé in his own hand.10 This statue and Pa Dampa’s own manuscript text were together considered the “main inner image(s)” (nangten tsowo) of the nunnery. On the interior walls of the temple there hung a series of fifteen extremely well-executed tangkas of the “Eighty Deeds of Tsongkhapa” (Tsongkha Gyepchu), donated to the monastery by “a Mongolian queen.”11 Apparently the Thirteenth Dalai Lama (Dalai Lama Kutreng Chuksumpa) asked for these to be brought to the Norbu Lingkha, the Dalai Lamas’ summer palace, and told the nuns to ask for anything they wanted in return. The elder nuns, however, declined, refusing to part with the tangkas, and so the paintings remained in the nunnery until 1959. Their whereabouts today are unknown.

In addition, the following statues were to be found in the temple:

1. A life-size figure of Vajrayoginī (Dorjé Neljorma)
2. A series of statues of the various incarnations of the Dalai Lamas12
3. Four metal-alloy statues of the Drakri incarnations (Drakri Trülku)13 that were said to be simulacra (draku) – that is, actually resembling these various figures
4. Two sets of statues of the Eight Medicine Buddhas (Menla Deshek Gyé), one made of clay (and life-size), another of metal (and smaller)
5. A life-size statue of Pabongkha Rinpoché

In addition to these various statues, as representatives of the Buddha’s speech there were:

• A volume of the Eight Thousand Line Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra (Pakpa Sherapkyi Paröltu Chinpa Gyetongpé Do, Āryāṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra) written in gold
• A complete set of the Kangyur
• Complete sets of the short, middling, and extensive Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras (Sherapkyi Paröltu Chinpé Do, Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra).

As representations of the Buddha’s mind, there were replicas of the “eight shāli stūpas of India.”

In the altar of Drakri Rinpoché’s rooms, located on top of the main temple, there used to be very fine statues of the Sixteen Arhats (Neten Chudruk), the Hashang, and the four direction protectors.

In the protector deity chapel (gönkhang) there were statues of:

1. Six-Armed Mahākāla (Gönpo Chakdruk)
2. Hayagrīva in his “Secret Accomplishment” form (Tamdrin Sangdrup)14
3. Dharmarāja (Damchen Chögyel)
4. Penden Lhamo
5. Vaiśravaṇa (Namsé)
6. mgon po a gho[ra] . It appears that only the head of this deity survives. In 2004, the body of the image had yet to be created.
7. Gyelchen Karma Trinlé

The head or face-mask of mgon po a gho[ra] in the protector deity chapel.

On the topmost floor there was a Tārā chapel (Drölma Lhakhang) with statues of the twenty-one Tārās. There was also a statue of Maitreya (Jampa) in this chapel.

In addition to these various images, there were also two self-arisen footprints (zhapjé) – one made by Pa Dampa Sanggyé, and the other by the horse of the second Drakri incarnation Gyatso Chönjor (Drakri Kutreng Nyipa Gyatso Chönjor).15 With one or two exceptions, none of the various images and religious artifacts mentioned above survived the Cultural Revolution, though many have been replaced by replicas.

A statue of Pa Dampa Sanggyé at Garu Nunnery.

Tradition has it that the famous Indian master and founder of the “Pacification” (Zhijé) school, Pa Dampa Sanggyé, came upon the site at one point in his peregrinations throughout Tibet.17 Stopping to rest on a boulder, he was approached by a white cow who offered him her milk. After drinking, Pa Dampa Sanggyé continued on his way, but the cow would not stop following him, so he turned to her and said, “Mother (ama), please stay here!” No sooner had he said these words than the cow dissolved into a nearby boulder, and at that moment the letters a ma emerged as self-arisen letters on the boulder’s surface. This boulder with the self-arisen letters – called the “ama boulder” – can be seen at Garu to this day. Pa Dampa Sanggyé then realized that this was a sign that a monastic institution should be founded at this site. There only remained the question of whether he should found a nunnery or a monastery for male monks there. As he was contemplating this, he heard the enchanted sound of goddesses from atop a nearby pass called Tama Donyak.18 Looking up, he saw goddesses dancing there. Because he had seen female deities, he took this as a sign of the fact that he was to found a nunnery at the site, and he gave it the name “Dance Gompa: Place of Meditative Equipoise” (Gargön Samten Ling). Before 1959, there was a square stone throne that was reputed to be the place where Pa Dampa sat as he performed the so-called “site investigations” (saché) to determine the exact place on which to build the nunnery, but this throne apparently has been destroyed.

The first nuns who lived at Garu were of course followers of Pa Dampa Sanggyé, and therefore practiced the various meditational techniques of the Pacification school. Over the period of several centuries, however, the oral tradition of the Pacification system “deteriorated,” and the one contemporary written account of the nunnery available to us states that the nuns, of their own volition, approached the great eighteenth-century Gelukpa master (and abbot of Pabongkha Hermitage [Pabongkha Ritrö]), Drakri Gyatso Tayé.19 They asked him to become their lama, and to take responsibility for the nunnery.20 He agreed, and for the past two centuries the nunnery has been under the aegis of the Drakri lamas, who have acted as both patrons and as the spiritual leaders to the institution. It was a tradition for the Drakri lama to come to the nunnery in the latter half of the fifth Tibetan month every year to conduct memorization exams, and this tradition was maintained up to 1959. Since the re-founding of the nunnery in the mid 1980s, the former administrative head (chandzö) of the Drakri Lama’s estate (Drakri Labrang) has substituted for Drakri Rinpoché, who today lives in exile in India. He comes to the nunnery at least once a year to administer these exams.

Two nuns take a break from kitchen duties to pose for a picture.

Before 1959, the nunnery was responsible for doing rituals for the Tibetan government – for example, accumulating repetitions of the “Prayer to the Twenty-One Tārās” at certain specific times throughout the year.21 These ritual commissions on behalf of the Tibetan government were transacted through the intermediary of the Drakri Lama’s estate. It was probably also because of its formal relationship to this lama’s estate (labrang) that the nunnery was considered a “state monastery” (zhunggön). Such a status brought with it not only economic but also social privilege; for example, the nuns were entitled to have an audience with the Dalai Lama every year in the Norbu Lingkha, the Dalai Lama’s summer palace, during the eighth Tibetan month.

Before 1959, it was the elder nuns who were responsible for the day-to-day administration of the nunnery. Nuns occupied the position of:

• “senior teacher” (loppön): responsible for overseeing all internal work and external relations, and therefore the functional equivalent of an abbot
• chant leader (umdzé): responsible for making preparations for (as well as for leading) ritual events, and
• two “representatives” (chimi): responsible for the financial affairs of the nunnery, for external relations (e.g., to patrons), and for fundraising; they were also the main conduits to the Drakri Lama’s estate.

Nuns also occupied minor posts like temple attendant (gonyer). Even today the nuns divide the administrative work of the nunnery among themselves according to seniority, holding each of the various offices for fixed terms.

Having been deprived of all sources of income after 1959, in order to survive, the nuns turned to growing and selling bamboo for a period of time. The Cultural Revolution, however, brought an end to this. The nunnery was forcibly depopulated and much of it was destroyed. Fundraising for reconstruction began in 1980. A group of fourteen former nuns asked for permission to rebuild, and were able to gather 390,000 ¥ from the Tibetan laity, and 20,000¥ from the local government authorities. The work of rebuilding the nunnery began in 1985, and was completed in a short time.

Note: The glossary is organized into sections according to the main language of each entry. The first section contains Tibetan words organized in Tibetan alphabetical order. To jump to the entries that begin with a particular Tibetan root letter, click on that letter below. Columns of information for all entries are listed in this order: THL Extended Wylie transliteration of the term, THL Phonetic rendering of the term, the English translation, the Sanskrit equivalent, associated dates, and the type of term. To view the glossary sorted by any one of these rubrics, click on the corresponding label (such as “Phonetics”) at the top of its column.