Religion: Standing on top of a ridge and surrounded by snowcapped mountains, the newly built Mithrukpa lhakhang of Gasa dzong is now home to 29 new bronze statues.

Coinciding with the 10th day of the seventh Bhutanese month, the statues were carried into the lhakhang in a traditional ceremonial procession on August 16.  The lam neten of Gasa rabdey consecrated the statues.

Sculpted by the Dharma Project in Thimphu at a cost of Nu 5.8M, the statues comprise a six-foot Mithrukpa and his 12 companions that are 14 inches each.  Mrithukpa, the main statue of the temple, in Sanskrit is Akshobhya Buddha, one of the five wisdom Buddhas.

In Buddhist iconography, Akshobhya is usually blue and sometimes gold.

He is depicted touching the earth with his right hand and holds a dorji (vajra) in his left hand.

The other statues are the two-and-a-half-foot tall rigsum goenpo (Jampalyang, Chhana Dorji and Chenrezig), Dorsem (Vajrasattva), Yangchenma  (Sarasvati), Gongdu and a three-and-a-half-foot tall Drakmar, 14-inch tall Drolma, Namgayma, Kuenkhen Pema Karpo and founder of Gasa dzong Drubthob Terkungpa.

Gasa dzongda Sonam Jigme said the Mithrupa lhakhang was built on royal command, after a part of the dzong got damaged in a fire in 2008.  Before the fire, it was used as an office and monk’s residence.  On its ground floor, Kagoen lhakhang, which was also affected by the fire, has been renovated. “We spent Nu 10M on renovation,” Sonam Jigme said.

The golden pinnacle on the lhakhang was also erected after completion of the renovation work.

The dzongda said, expenses of the golden pinnacle and renovation of Jowo Jampa (Buddha Maitreya) statue that is placed in Kagoen lhakhang were also met from the statue’s fund.

Majestically standing on the northern frontier, Gasa dzong was built in the 17th century by Tenzin Drukdra, the second Druk Desi over the site of a meditation place established by Drubthob Terkungpa in the 13th century.

The fortress, constructed as a defense against attacks from the north, was later expanded by the fourth Desi, Gyalse Tenzin Rabgye.

Courtesy: kuenselonline, Aug 21, 2013