PADMASAMBHAVA PHUG, Tharkeghyang

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Guru Padma Gufa is a talus cave below a gneisseous fallen boulder. A 5 m long, man-sized passage leads to a 1m-step down into a low crawl via a shallow but wide room to a second cave entrance facing north. The cave contains countless Tsha-tsha. SITUATION: On the south-western side of Tharkeghyang a steep valley limits the small plateau on which the town is built. When contouring from the town (leaving from the gompa) one crosses a gully to pass through a road-cutting, beyond which a small rivulet is turning some water-powered prayer-mills. Climbing uphill from the back of the mani-mills through jungle for about 30 m, a first dark cave entrance, facing straight west, is seen below a fallen rock. This is the lower one of the two caves associated with Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava and his consort Yeshe Tsogyal. Franz-Karl Ehrhard (1993, personal communication): Two caves. One is ascribed to Guru Rinpoche and the another one to his female partner Yeshes mtshorgyal, –>Ye shes mtsho rgyal [sgub] phug.