Lingshed Monastery - History

History

Lingshed Village, at the heart of the Trans-Sengge-La region between Ladakh and Zanskar, has been inhabited for nearly a thousand years. It was originally reputed to be a local hunting area, which is the source of its name. The village has been the site of several Buddhist monasteries: the remnants of a cave monastery and two walls dedicated to the translator Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055). Local tradition in the region also speaks of Kadampa and Drugpa Kagyu monasteries in the valley.

Lingshed Monastery (or Kumbum, meaning 'A Hundred Thousand Images') was founded as a Geluk School Monastery in the 1440s by Changsems Sherabs Zangpo, disciple of the noted Tibetan preceptor Je Tsongkhapa. Local tradition records how Sherabs Zangpo, having founded Karsha and Phugtal Monasteries to the south, travelled over Hanuma-La Pass to the south of Lingshed, from where he saw an 'auspicious shining light' shining on a rock on the hillside. He built a chorten around that rock, and this became the basis of Kumbum's central shrine, Tashi 'Od Bar ('Auspicious Shining Light' shrine).

In 1779, the Ladakhi king Tsewang Namgyal donated the lands of Lingshed and its surrounding villages (along with the Zanskari monasteries and villages of Karsha, Mune, Phuktal and Rangdum) to Lobsang Gelek Yeshe Dragpa, the 3rd incarnate of the Ngari Rinpoche lineage. In 1783, Ngari Rinpoche founded Rangdum Monastery on the boundary of the Karsha Valley as his ecclesiastical seat, to which Lingshed is subordinate.