Zang Dhok Palri Phodang

Zangdok Palri Monastery or Zang Dhok Palri Phodang is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Nyingma school, located at Kalimpong in West Bengal, India. The monastery was founded by Dudjom Rinpoche in 1957[1] and built where Dudjom Rinpoche first settled while in exile from Tibet, atop Durpin Hill. It represents Guru Rinpoche's palace, the Glorious Copper Colored Mountain.[1][2] In 1975, Dudjom Rinpoche moved from Kalimpong to Nepal,[3] and the monastery was additionally consecrated in 1976 by the visiting Dalai Lama.

A series of important Nyingma school lineage transmissions given by Dudjom Rinpoche to the Tibetan exile communities were first held at Zangdok Palri in 1961.[1][4] The monastery houses many rare Tibetan Buddhist and specifically Nyingma lineage texts that were brought into India after the invasion of Tibet by China in 1949/1950. It also houses the 108 volumes of the Buddhist Kangyur translated into Tibetan. It is popularly known as the Durpin Monastery, and the view from the hill-top is breathtaking.


  1. ^ a b c Joseph McClellan, "Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje", Treasury of Lives, February 2024
  2. ^ Tashi Deki, "Zangdok Palri, the Lotus Light Palace of Guru Rinpoche", The Bhutanese, August 8, 2012
  3. ^ Yeshe Thaye, "A Short Life Story of His Holiness Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche (1904-1987)", Dudjom Buddhist International
  4. ^ "Durpin Monastery", Treasury of Lives
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