CityDekho
Tawang Monastery

Tawang Monastery

pilgrimage site · Arunachal Pradesh

India's largest Buddhist monastery holds the slope above the Tawang Chu valley, close to both the Chinese and Bhutanese borders.

State
Arunachal Pradesh
Type
Pilgrimage Site

India's largest Buddhist monastery holds the slope above the Tawang Chu valley, close to both the Chinese and Bhutanese borders. It is three storeys high, ringed by a compound wall 282 metres long, with 65 residential buildings inside, which makes it closer to a walled town than a single hall and worth walking properly rather than photographing from the gate. Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso founded it in 1680-81 at the wish of the fifth Dalai Lama; it follows the Gelug school and kept a long association with Drepung in Lhasa. The library holds old Kangyur and Tengyur scriptures.

Tawang Monastery is known for

India's largest monasteryGelug schoolKangyur and Tengyur

Tawang Monastery guide & itineraries

Been to Tawang Monastery?

Write what you would tell a friend — where you stayed, what you would skip, the thing you wish somebody had mentioned before you went. We read every submission before it goes up.

Share your story

People also explored

Travellers viewing Tawang Monastery also loved these

Arunachal Pradesh

Parshuram Kund

Parshuram Kund, on the Lohit river where it leaves the hills, is Arunachal's holiest Hindu site — the pool where, by legend, sage Parshuram washed away the…

Arunachal Pradesh

Namdapha National Park

Namdapha National Park, in the Changlang district of eastern Arunachal Pradesh, is one of India's largest and most biodiverse protected areas.

Arunachal Pradesh

Malinithan

What survives here is stonework, not a working temple: the ruins of an early medieval shrine on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, generally credited to…

More spiritual places to explore

More places you'll love

Kerala

Guruvayur (Sri Krishna Temple)

Guruvayur is a temple town in Kerala centred on the revered Sri Krishna (Guruvayurappan) Temple, often called the Dwarka of the South.

Kerala

Padmanabhaswamy Temple (Thiruvananthapuram)

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram is a Vaishnava shrine where Lord Vishnu reclines on the serpent Anantha in the Anantha-shayanam posture.

Andhra Pradesh

Srisailam (Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga)

Srisailam, set amid the forested Nallamala Hills above the Krishna River, is home to the Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Temple, a rare site that is at once one of…

Maharashtra

Trimbakeshwar (Jyotirlinga)

Trimbakeshwar, near Nashik in Maharashtra, enshrines one of the twelve sacred Jyotirlingas of Shiva and marks the source of the Godavari, India's…

Maharashtra

Siddhivinayak Temple (Mumbai)

Shree Siddhivinayak is Mumbai's most beloved Ganesha temple, built in 1801 and today one of the richest and most-visited shrines in India.

Gujarat

Shatrunjaya Hill

Shatrunjaya Hill rises above the Shatrunjaya River near Palitana town in Bhavnagar district, and no other mountain in the world carries anything like what…

Gujarat

Pavagadh Hill

Pavagadh Hill is a volcanic plateau rising about 822 metres from the plains of the Panchmahal district, at the heart of the UNESCO-listed Champaner-Pavagadh…

Gujarat

Valsad

Valsad, once known as Bulsar, sits at the southern tip of Gujarat on the Arabian Sea.

Gujarat

Jamnagar

Jamnagar, once the princely capital of Nawanagar under the Jadeja rulers, sits on the southern Gulf of Kutch.

Gujarat

Gandhinagar

Gandhinagar is Gujarat's planned capital, laid out on the west bank of the Sabarmati by the architects H.K. Mewada and Prakash M.

West Bengal

Nalhateshwari Temple

Nalhateshwari Temple in Nalhati, Birbhum, West Bengal is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism.

West Bengal

Kankalitala Temple

Kankalitala Temple in Bolpur, Birbhum, West Bengal is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism.

Trending in Arunachal Pradesh

Tawang

Tawang

Tawang, at over 3,000 metres in the far Himalayas of Arunachal Pradesh, is home to India's largest Buddhist monastery and the birthplace of the 6th Dalai Lama. Snow peaks, high lakes, war memorials and the dramatic Sela Pass make the drive up as much of the point as Tawang itself.

Bomdila

Bomdila

Bomdila is a scenic Himalayan hill town in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, perched around 2,400 metres with sweeping views of snow-capped peaks. Home to the Monpa people and a large Buddhist monastery, it is a popular stop on the mountain road to Tawang, surrounded by apple orchards and craft centres.

Ziro Valley

Ziro Valley

Ziro is a valley of rice paddies ringed by pine hills, and it is the home of the Apatani — one of the few communities in India who terrace-farm rice and fish in the same flooded field. The farming is the thing to understand here. The Apatani irrigate paddy and raise fish in the same water, without machinery, on a system worked out over centuries. Walk out into the fields around Hong or Hija in the early morning and you will see it running. Older Apatani women wear facial tattoos and large nose plugs — the practice was abandoned decades ago, so the last generation carrying it is now elderly. It is a difficult thing to photograph well and an easy thing to photograph rudely. Ask, and accept no. The Ziro Festival of Music happens in late September, brings a few thousand people to a valley with limited beds, and transforms the place for a weekend. Whether that is the version you want is a real question. Arunachal Pradesh requires an Inner Line Permit for Indian nationals and a Protected Area Permit for foreign nationals; arrange it before you travel. Come March to October.

Namdapha National Park

Namdapha National Park

Namdapha National Park, in the Changlang district of eastern Arunachal Pradesh, is one of India's largest and most biodiverse protected areas. Ranging from tropical forest to snow-capped peaks, it is the only park in India believed to host four big cats - tiger, leopard, clouded leopard and snow leopard - along with the rare red panda and hoolock gibbon.

Where next?

More like Tawang Monastery

Spiritual & Pilgrimage

Or a different kind of trip

Hill StationsBeachesHeritage

Everything in Arunachal PradeshBrowse all destinations