Menri Gompa

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Bön monastery. This monastery was the seat of the head Lama of the Bön order from its founding in 1405 till 1959. It was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Before 1959 350 monks lived here, now there are about 60. Menri was the center of the Bön religion.
Reconstruction began in 1984 and still continues.

Tashi Menri Monastery (bKra-shis sMan-ri dGon-pa), located at Tobgyel (sTobs-rgyal) in Tsang, was established in 1405 by Nyammé Sherab Gyeltsen (1356-1416), and became the main Bön monastery of Tibet.
The site of Menri is very extraordinary. When the founder of Bön, Tönpa Shenrab, traveled to Kongpo, he stopped at Tobgyel. With his miraculous powers, he left his footprint in a rock, saying, "Little boy, in the future your monastery will be here." The mountain behind Menri is like a drawn curtain of white silk. In the middle of it, there is an expansive flat rock slab with the naturally formed figures of 1000 Buddhas, 80 vidyadharas (rig-'dzin, holders of pure awareness), and 1000 dakinis. The mountains in front of the monastery have many naturally formed wondrous shapes.

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