Tashichho Dzong

Tashichhoedzong བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཆོས་རྫོང is a Buddhist monastery and fortress on the northern edge of the city of Thimpu in Bhutan, on the western bank of the Wang Chu

Tashichhoedzong བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཆོས་རྫོང is a Buddhist monastery and fortress on the northern edge of the city of Thimpu in Bhutan, on the western bank of the Wang Chu. It has traditionally been the seat of the Druk Desi (or "Dharma Raja"), the head of Bhutan's civil government, an office which has been combined with the kingship since the creation of the monarchy in 1907, and summer capital of the countr

y.[1]
"It was built by the first Dharma Raja, who also founded the Lho-drukpa sect of Buddhism, which has remained the distinctive sect of Bhutan. The correct transliteration of the vernacular name—Bkrashis-chhos-rdzong, meaning "the fortress of auspicious doctrine"—is, according to Dr. Graham Sandberg, Tashichhoidzong...."[2]
The main structure of the whitewashed building is two-storied with three-storied towers at each of the four corners topped by triple-tiered golden roofs. There is also a large central tower or utse. Tashichoedzong in winter
The original Thimphu dzong (the Dho-Ngyen Dzong, or Blue Stone Dzong) was built in 1216 by Lama Gyalwa Lhanangpa where Dechen Phodrang now stands above Thimphu. Soon after, Lama Phajo Drukgom Shigpo, who first brought the Drukpa Kagyu lineage to Bhutan, took it over. In 1641 Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal acquired it from Lama Phajo's descendants, but soon finding it too small, he built another one, known as the lower Dzong for the administration, keeping the older one for the monks. The original dzong was destroyed by fire in 1771 and everything was moved to the lower one which was expanded then, and again by the 13th Druk Desi (1744-1763), and also in 1866. It was damaged during an earthquake in 1897 and rebuilt in 1902. King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck had it completely renovated and enlarged over five years after he moved the capital to Thimpu in 1952 in traditional style using neither nails nor written plans. Tashichoedzong in 1921
It has been the seat of Bhutan's government since 1952 and presently houses the throne room and offices of the king, the secretariat and the ministries of home affairs and finance. Other government departments are housed in buildings nearby. West of the dzong is a small tower of Ney Khang Lhakhang which houses a statue of Shakyamuni Buddha and protective deities.[3][4] In 1953 the royal family took up residence in the newly built Dechencholing Palace.

12/07/2013

Today 12th July or the Fourth Day of the Sixth Month in Bhutanese calendar also known as Drukpa Tshezhi (The First Sermon of Lord Buddha), is considered one of the most sacred days in the Buddhist calendar.

The day commemorates the first sermon of the Buddha which he gave at the dear park in Sarnath in India, called ‘the Sermon of the Turning of the Wheel of Dharma'.
The first sermon began with the Buddha's advice against the two extremes, which, according to him, should be avoided. These two extremes are sensual indulgence and self-mortification. The Buddha, having had experienced both, knew that they would not in any way lead to spiritual perfection and enlightenment, and were thus inappropriate for holy life.
In the sermon the Buddha advises us to follow the path called the Middle Path or the Noble Eightfold Path which avoids the two extremes. We should satisfy the necessities of life. Our body should be kept in good health and our mind strong and clear in order to comprehend the Four Noble Truths, the embodiment of the whole teachings of the Buddha, which consists of the following;
1)Dukkha:the existence of suffering
2)Samudaya:the cause of suffering
3)Nirodha:the cessation of suffering
4)Marga:the path leading to cessation of suffering which is the Noble Eightfold Path.
In his first sermon, the Buddha taught the fundamentals of what was to become one of the world's greatest religions,or,as some would call it on of the worlds greatest philosophies-a way of life, a path towards individual liberation, a path today is followed by millions.The five ascetics then became the first members of the Sangha.

18/06/2013

Today 10th day of 5th Lunar month (18th June) is an extremely holly day because it is the Birth Anniversary Of Guru Rinpoche(the second Buddha).Guru Padmasambhava was incarnated as an eight-year-old child appearing in a lotus blossom floating in Lake Dhanakosha, in the kingdom of Oḍḍiyāna in Ancient India and in modern times identified with the Swat Valley of South Asia present-day Pakistan.He introduced Vajrayana Buddhism in Bhutan ,Tibet and other countries.In Bhutan his teachings are still flourishing with his profound blessings.
There is no other Buddha as powerful as Guru Rinpoche in this degenerate times as said by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
2 of the most Powerful Prayers of Guru Rinpoche.
-༄༅། །གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཚིག་བདུན་གསོལ་འདེབས་བཞུགས་སོ། །
The Seven Line Prayer

ཧཱུྂ༔ ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཡུལ་གྱི་ནུབ་བྱང་མཚམས༔
hung orgyen yul gyi nubjang tsam
Hūṃ! In the north-west of the land of Oḍḍiyāṇa,
པདྨ་གེ་སར་སྡོང་པོ་ལ༔
pema gesar dongpo la
In the heart of a lotus flower,
ཡ་མཚན་མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་བརྙེས༔
yatsen chok gi ngödrub nyé
Endowed with the most marvellous attainments,
པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་ཞེས་སུ་གྲགས༔
pema jungné shyé su drak
You are renowned as the ‘Lotus Born’,
འཁོར་དུ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མང་པོས་བསྐོར༔
khor du khandro mangpö kor
Surrounded by many hosts of ḍākinīs.
ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་བསྒྲུབ་ཀྱི༔
khyé kyi jesu dak drub kyi
Following in your footsteps,
བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་ཕྱིར་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ༔
jingyi lab chir shek su sol
I pray to you: Come, inspire me with your blessing!
གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྂ༔
guru pema siddhi hung

-The Prayer to Guru Rinpoche for Removing Obstacles and Fulfilling Wishes
-dü sum sangyé guru rinpoché
Guru Rinpoche, the Buddha of past, present and future,

ngödrup kun dak déwa chenpö shyap
‘Dewa Chenpo’—Guru of Great Bliss—the source of all siddhis,

barché kun sel düd dul drakpo tsal
‘Düd Dul Drakpo Tsal’—Wrathful One that Subdues Negativity—who removes all obstacles,

solwa depso chingyi lap tu sol
Grant your blessings, we pray!

chi nang sangwé barché shyiwa dang
Through them, may all obstacles—outer, inner and secret—

sampa lhun gyi druppar chin gyi lop
Be quelled, and may all our aspirations be fulfilled.

Discovered by the great terma-revealer Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa, from the right hand side of the Sengchen Namdrak rock on Mount Rinchen Tsekpa, ‘The Pile of Jewels’. Because the blessing of this prayer, one intended for this present time, is so immense, it should be treasured by all as their daily practice.
Below Photo:Today morning at Tashichhodzong.