The ruins at Panglung Hermitage (Panglung Ritrö).

Panglung Hermitage (Panglung Ritrö) is located in the valley northeast (and downhill) from Purchok. It takes about thirty minutes to walk there from Purchok. Panglung today lies completely in ruins, and we can say little about its layout or its history. We know that it once had a large temple, and that there was a Dorjé Shukden chapel somewhere on the site. The hermitage (ritrö) also had a Dorjé Shukden oracle – an individual who would go into trance to make prognostications while possessed by the god.

An attempt was made to rebuild a portion of Panglung in the 1990s, but informants reported that there was considerable opposition from the local people because the site has always been associated with this controversial protector deity, the propitiation of which has been banned in recent years by the present Dalai Lama.

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