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Tengboche Monastery is the most popular and biggest monastery in the Everest region. The monastery is situated at an altitude of 3,867 meters and is the only monastery at this height in the entire world. Tengboche monastery is an important landmark on the pathway to Everest Base Camp.
Tengboche Monastery is an important religious site in the Sagarmatha national park. The monastery is on the top of the hill and provides incredible views of Ama Dablam, Mt. Nuptse, Mt. Everest, Tawache, and Thamserku. The monastery depicts the ancient Buddhist culture in the Khumbu region and attracts numerous visitors every year.
Tengboche Monastery was built in 1916 by Lama Gulu. The monastery was destroyed during an earthquake in the year of 1934 and was rebuilt again later on. It was again destroyed because of the fire and again was restored in the year 1989. The monastery again faced serious damage in the earthquake of 2015 but was repaired later on.
Lama Gulu was the person who built Tengboche Monastery and it is the first monastery under the Nyingmapa lineage of the Vajrayana Buddhism. Vajrayana Buddhism does not discriminate male and female while teaching Buddhism to its devotees.
Vajrayana Buddhism was studied and practiced by Nuns when the Tengboche Monastery was built. Tengboche Monastery is the final stop of all the religious sites in the Sagarmatha national park. It attracts thousands of visitors every year.
The monastery is surrounded by ancient mani stones prayers flags from all sides. The prayer flags are of five colors which indicates five elements of Buddhist religion: earth, wind, water, fire, and consciousness.
Most of the visitors and trekkers visit the Tengboche Monastery to pray and light the butter candles for their better health and safe trek to the mountains. Also, the monastery provides the amazing views of the Himalayan ranges covered in snow. If you are visiting in the spring season, you can also enjoy the beautiful views of slopes of the hills covered by pine forest, beautiful rhododendron, and other green vegetation.
As the Tengboche monastery is situated at an altitude of 3687 meters, the climate remains cold most of the time. The lowest temperature falls down zero degrees with snowfall in winter.The warmest month for the area in July with the average temperature of 10 degree Celsius.
The Sherpa peoples are the inhabitants of the entire Tengboche area who are said to be migrated from Tibet some six hundred years ago. The local Sherpa people are the followers of Buddhism and caretaker of the monastery.
If you are visiting the Tengboche monastery during the fall of Autumn season, you can enjoy the most important festival at Tengboche Monastery called Mani Rimdu of the Sherpa people. This festival is celebrated on the tenth lunar month as per the Tibetian calendar.
Mani means “the part of the chant of Chenrezig” while Rimdu means “small red pills”. The attendees of the festival are distributed with a small red pill. The festival preparation is divided into 6 steps: Construction of the sand mandala, the empowerment (Wong), the dances (Chham), Ser-kyem, the fire puja (Jinsak) and Chhingpa.
The festival is officially celebrated for three days and ends on the nineteenth day of the month. It is celebrated on the full-moon day the autumn fall season.
The festival starts with a puja that continues for 24 hours. The puja is performed by the monks who are dressed up in the traditional way. This festival includes a total of 16 dances. Each and every dance depicts the victory of Buddhist over the ancient “Bon” religion. It is believed that the dance performed during this festival is religious and not for the regular entertainment purpose.
The Buddhist monk performs a rite to remove the negativity out of the people on the last day. Mani Rimdu festival is also celebrated at Chiwang and Thame monasteries.
Tengboche monastery is surrounded by mountain ranges and forests. You can witness the endangered musk deer and yak. Also, the place has a wonderful green vegetation which consists of various medicinal herbs and plants. You can also see the monks practicing the Buddhism, local Sherpa culture, the way of life and beautiful paintings on the wall.
Tengboche Monastery is an essential site on the path of Everest Base camp. You can visit the monastery if you are visiting Namche Bazaar or trekking to Everest Base Camp. You need to take a flight to Lukla from Kathmandu. From Lukla, you need to trek to Phakding which takes around 4-5 hours.
Next, you need to trek to Namche Bazaar from Phakding which is walking towards steep inclines to Namche Bazaar. Namche Bazaar is the gateway to the Everest Base Camp. It is the main Acclimatization point for everyone who is going to Basecamp or to the peak itself.
The trail to the Tengboche Monastery is descending to the hills beside the suspension bridge from Namche Bazaar. This walking trail offers beautiful views of Himalayan range. The walking trail is gradually steep to the uphill and it takes around 5-6 hours of walk to reach Tengboche Monastery from Namche Bazaar.
You can visit the monastery and enjoy the beautiful nature around the monastery. You can spend the night at teahouses or lodges around the surrounding and return back the next day.If you are planning to visit our home town (Khumbu Regions) or any part of Nepal, please let us know. We Mountain Sherpa Trekking is an established Best local Trekking Company in Nepal with more than 20 years of experience.
We employee the real 100% local Sherpa guide which will make your trekking and expedition safe and allow you to enjoy your journey.
