Tabo Monastery Ritual Documentation

Kanden Rinpoche, abbot of Tabo Monastery in Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, asked Core of Culture to document the 1000 year old Vajradhatu ritual performed there since being re-introduced by the Dalai Lama in 2005.

Tabo Monastery was founded in 996, and is the oldest operational monastery in India and the Himalayas. Tantric Buddhist rituals have been performed there, in uniquely designed spaces, for over 1000 years, and reveal mysteries of tantric ritual transmission and embodied practice in Buddhism.

Sculpture of Vajrahasa, in relief, Assembly Hall, Tabo Monastery; part of an architectural and artistic Vajradhatu Mandala composition executed within the temple, along which devotees walk. From Tabo, Art and History, by Deborah Klimberg-Slater, private publication, 2005, Vienna. p. 42
Sculpture of Vajrahasa, in relief, Assembly Hall, Tabo Monastery; part of an architectural and artistic Vajradhatu Mandala composition executed within the temple, along which devotees walk. From Tabo, Art and History, by Deborah Klimberg-Slater, private publication, 2005, Vienna. p. 42