Pabonka Hermitage
| Pabonka Hermitage | |
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Pabonka Hermitage
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| Tibetan transcription(s) | |
| Wylie transliteration | Pha bong kha |
| Chinese transcription(s) | |
| Traditional | 帕邦喀 |
| Simplified | 帕邦喀 |
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| Coordinates | 29°43′11″N 91°7′06″E / 29.71972°N 91.11833°E |
| Monastery information | |
| Location | Mount Parasol, Lhasa Prefecture, Tibet, China |
| Founded by | Songtsän Gampo |
| Founded | 7th century |
| Type | Tibetan Buddhist |
| Sect | Gelug |
| Head Lama | Part of Sera Monastery today. |
| Festivals | Six-day Avalokiteśvara fasting Losar ritals Sixteen day fourth Tibetan month fasting rituals “Sixth-Month Fourth-Day” pilgrimage |
Pabonka Hermitage (Pha bong kha), also written Pawangka, is a historical hermitage, today belonging to Sera Monastery, about 8 kilometres northwest of Lhasa in the Nyang bran Valley on the slopes of Mount Parasol (Dbu gdugs ri) in Tibet.
Founded by Songtsän Gampo in the 7th century, it is currently the largest and most important of the Sera hermitages and is the starting point for the “Sixth-Month Fourth-Day” (Drug pa tshe bzhi) of the Sera Mountain Circumambulation Circuit (Se ra’i ri ’khor) pilgrimage.
The site, which is over 1,300 years old, dates back to Songtsän Gampo, the founder of the Tibetan Empire, and was amongst the first buildings built in the Lhasa area by him during the 7th century after settlement. Although originally the site of his castle or fort, the Tibetan Annals have revealed that Pabonka was converted into a monastery, possibly under the reign of the second great Buddhist king of Tibet Trisong Detsen. Detsen, along with Guru Rinpoche and the first seven monks of the new Tibetan Empire used to meditate at the hermitage and it became one of Tibet's very earliest Buddhist monasteries, possibly even pre-dating Jokhang. The original nine-storied monastery was partially destroyed by King Langdharma in 841 during his campaign to destroy monastic Buddhism; it was rebuilt in the 11th century as a two-storied structure that housed 200 monks.
Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) lived at the site as a hermit, and it eventually became a scholarly institution. The Fifth Dalai Lama was known to be fond of the monastery and funded the building of an upper floor for Pabonka.
Before 1959, Pabonka was independent of Sera Monastery, and from 1960 to the mid-1980s it was controlled by the Chinese. It then came under the control of Sera, whose monks renovated it and are continuing its traditions.
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