About Drametse Lhakhang

 

Drametse Lhakhang, a sixteenth-century monastery straddling a steep and narrow mountain ridge in the verdant slopes of the eastern Himalayas, today houses a community of 80 monks. This Nyingma Buddhist site predates the seventeenth-century consolidation of Bhutan into a single kingdom. The complex consists of a three-story temple in the center of a courtyard surrounded by residential quarters, offices, and classrooms on the periphery. The thick walls of the buildings, made out of stone laid in clay mortar, are coated with characteristic white and red-pigmented limewash. In the interior of the lhakhang, carved, painted wood columns support painted beams and the building’s unique “flying” roof, a low-pitch roof that extends far beyond the edge of the walls without being attached to them.

Drametse Monastery was founded by Ani Choten Zangmo, Pema Lingpa’s granddaughter, who fled from Bumthang to escape a proposal of marriage from the local king. She fled east and when she found a place ideally suited for meditation and practice, she named it ‘Drametse’ which literally means ‘the peak where there are no enemies’. Ani Choeten Zangmo’s kudung (remains) is preserved to this day in the monastery as the most important relic.

Further, Drametse was blessed by the birth of three successive incarnations of the Zhabdrung Jigme Drakpa (1791-1830), Jigme Norbu (1831-1861), and Jigme Chogyel (1862-1904). Many religious festivals with sacred masked dances are performed every year. Out of the many masked dances, the Drametse Ngacham (Drum dance of Drametse) is the most popular and well known in the country. It is said that Lama Kunga Gyaltshen, brother of Ani Choeten Zangmo, in a visionary state reached Zangdo Pelri (the Paradise) of Guru Rinpoche where he witnessed the performance of this dance. Upon his return to the human realm, he introduced the tradition of this dance in Drametse and later it spread widely and was known as the Drametse Ngacham.