Root Temple

Lineage

While Mura Monastery is mostly focused on the practices from the Nyingma tradition, which are the teachings transmitted by Guru Padmasambhava, it is open to the practices of other traditions, for so long as the teachings originate from the Buddha Sakyamuni. And it does not matter if they are teachings from the Greater or Lesser Vehicles, or if they are esoteric or non-esoteric ones.

Features

Mura Monastery is held in high regards by both monastics and lay people. It is located at the border of Qinghai and Gansu, in the region of Golok. Since inception, it is known for these three features: non-sectarian, has no political stance, and is non-biased to any region (from which the practitioners originate from).

Historical Changes

It is a little unclear how Mura Monastery was founded. But according to legend, about five hundred years ago, it was a meditation centre known as “Mura Gengen,” and this translates to the “Teacher of Mura.”

It seems that there was once a teacher who specialised in archery. He was extremely brave and skilled in battle, and he had many sworn brothers, but he had no family of his own. One day, when a friend’s horse was stolen, he chased after the thieves. He shot arrows at them which hit three of them, and he managed to retrieved the horse as a result.

That night, he had a dream. A woman dressed in white appeared and told him that, “Although you have good karmic connections, you also have many bad ones. If you are not remorseful, you will fall into hell.” Although he wasn’t a Buddhist devotee then, his faith in the local deities was strong. So he believed the message given to him in the dream was a divine command. Thus, he resolved to repent for his wrongs.

So, he started to look for a spiritual friend. Eventually, he met the great master Dudul Langpa Rinpoche in Derge, Sichuan, and he started doing preliminary practices (nongdro) under his guidance. After some time, he developed a deep sense of renunciation. He then travelled in search of a place where he is unknown to anyone, so that he could continue with his practice without disturbance. Soon, he arrived at the river bank of the Yellow River (the area where Mura Monastery sits today). There were many caves surrounding the river, and he also dug a hole for himself to meditate inside. With the river nearby, he would drink from it when he was thirsty, and eat either the leaves or the bark, from the heavenly bamboo that could be found near this river.

Days passed into years. One day, as he was by the riverbank collecting water, he came across two or three hunters carrying game meat, passing by his cave. These hunters recognised him immediately as their long lost sown brother, and asked that he return home with them. But he remained firm in his faith, and was immovable. Instead of leaving with them, he started teaching the dharma to these three hunters, hoping to transform their minds.

When these hunters knew for sure that he would not return home, they decided to remain at Mura with him. So they became his first disciples. They then dug a hole each, to meditate inside. In time, all of them attained spiritual accomplishment, and they were known as “yogis” to the people there. Understandably, the place soon evolved to become a place for meditation.

After some time, the number of people who committed to a lifetime of retreat there grew to 30. Legend has it that this place was then known as “The Great Forest Retreat Place of Mura”. For the record, in the Mura Dorje Chang’s collection of songs, it is mentioned that “32 yogis and 2 bhikkhus are the bloodlines of Mura.”

By then, this place already had retreatants from other regions. Unfortunately, a war soon broke out at what is present-day’s Langtang County, Sichuan. This prompted seven families who were the bloodline of Mura, to flee Langtang, in search of their relatives outside the war zone. Very soon, they arrived at the Great Forest Retreat Place of Mura, and settled down there, following which, their grandchildren became monastics. With the increased number of monastics, collectively, this group soon became known as the Monastic Sangha of Mura.

The influx of retreatants resulted in a shortage of caves for practise. The group was then forced to shift to a flat ground, to build a house there. But the Mongolians were at war with the people of Golok at that time, and this flat ground was located in between the two fighting states. This is perhaps the reason why when Kathog Baksang Gyeltsen Namkha arrived at Mura, there were already two hundred over practitioners there, and most of them were living in tents. There must be practitioners from both of these states.

After the war ended in 1789, Sonam Paten (an incarnation of the 1st Ontul Rinpoche) of the Zhichen tradition visited Mura to transmit the teachings of Kathogpa. While the people at Mura had done this practice before, this time round, they did it more in-depth, to develop a much closer connection to this dharma. By then, there were already close to 300 resident monastics living there, and during dharma assemblies, it was usually flooded by no less than 1,000 people. To accommodate the growing number of residents and visitors, a small stupa for the Eight Herukas, and a dharma hall were constructed at the Kunta area. Despite this, there’s still not enough room for all during dharma assemblies. Whenever this happened, some monastics had to temporarily put up in tents

The dharma assemblies held there at that time were mostly for long-term meditation practices of these deities: Avalokiteshvara, Guru Padmasambhava, and Vajrakilaya. During these assemblies, 7 days were allocated to each deity, totalling 21 days, and the monastery at that time, abided strictly by the same monastic rules as Zhichen Monastery’s.

In the biography of the renown Do Khyentse Yisie Dorje, it is said that, “This place has become a Mura Village. There are not only people possessed by Bon spirits, but there are also monastics.” At that time, this place was known as the “Zen Forest of Tents.”

In the year 1885, a meditation room was built at a mountain next to the Yellow River, for Dugee Rechungpa Rinpoche. Following which, the people of the Zen Forest of Tents shifted to the mountain, and built their own houses there. Surrounding their houses, a dharma hall for Avalokiteshvara was built. After this, new rules were set for the monastery, and the place was known as “Dugee’s Hermitage of Practice”. In accordance, all residents had to abide by the Eight Precepts, and they could only speak and eat on alternate days.

The ritual for observing precepts would start at 5 am daily, which was followed by dharma practice until 8 am when breakfast was served. While others were taking breakfast, those scheduled to fast would use the breakfast hour to do prostrations instead. Then, it’s dharma practice again, from 9 am to noon. Lunch would follow, and practice would start again at 2 pm and end at 5 pm. Then, at 6 pm, resident monks would either be engaged in making tsa-tsa, or in the ritual of water offerings. It would be practice again, from 7 pm to 9 pm. Finally, its bedtime. This was the routine that the residents kept.

In fact, some elderly bhikkhus and practitioners would only sleep for 3 hours a day, because they would use the rest of their time in meditation, or Buddhist rituals. Alcohol, non-vegetarian foods, and allium vegetables are not allowed in the hermitage.

In the final years of his life, Dugee Rechungpa Rinpoche had already made many friends. They included khenpos, rinpoches, tulkus, and lamas, as well as an increasing number of devotees. As some of them could not commit to abide by the Eight Precepts for a lifetime, they had to be organised as members of the Buddhist institute or the hermitage. As the place was already flooded by practitioners from many different traditions, it became known as the “Forest of the Flourishing Eastern Buddhism”.

In the year 1983, the Government of China approved the reconstruction of the monastery. Gontang Tulku and the Panchen Lama had ordered that Mura Monastery be relocated back to the flat ground. So, a dharma hall that could accommodate up to 300 people was built there, and the stupas that were originally there were restored. Despite the dwindling number of monastics and practitioners totalling 40, everything else was the same as before: the sadhanas used, how verses were recited, how ritual implements were used, torma design, and even, the sand mandala design. Then, the monastery started to teach people who were much younger. In addition, outside the monastery, there were 16 huge prayer wheels, and several hundreds of smaller ones. There were also 40 rooms, housing resident tulkus and monastics, and female devotees were not allowed in the monastery at night.

Today, there are more resident monks at the monastery, as the maximum approved by the government is 105. Thus, the dharma hall was enlarged to accommodate 1,500 devotees. 

Annual Events (based on lunar calendar)

• 6th to 13th of the 4th month: Guru Rinpoche Dharma Assembly of Nyingmapa’s Kathog Tradition
• 15th of the 4th month: Eight Precepts Practice (continuous 8 days), starting from historical Buddha’s birthday
• 4th to 10th of the 6th month: Dharma Assembly for Vajrakilaya Practice
• 15th of the 6th month to 30th of the 7th month: Summer Retreat. During retreat, 7 days are allocated for the practice of Longchen lineage’s Avalokiteshvara’s self liberation from sufferings. Except for these 7 days which are filled by lectures, the rest of the retreat is about practice.
• Autumn (8th month): 9-day Avalokiteshvara’s practice for transcending all beings. This is followed by up to two days’ practice of 100 Deities.
• Winter: Retreat for 8 days, to do continuous overnight practice of Guru Great Accomplishment
• 10th month: Tara and Protector practices for 7 days
• 25th of the 10th month: Puja, on the parinirvana anniversary of Tsongkapa
• 27th to 29th of the 12th month: Wrathful Guru Padmasambhava or Simhamukha practice for the purpose of overcoming obstacles, and averting from harm
• 1st of Lunar New Year: Verses of the Eight Noble Auspiciousness and protector practices, and make offerings to the deities in the ten directions.

The Sacred Place of Mura Monastery

Geographical Location: Geographically, Mura Monastery is located right in the middle of China today; in the eastern part of Tibet Autonomous Region. It is a part of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, sitting on a grassland at an altitude of 3000 m, that borders the Yellow River. The temperature in summer is about 20 degrees, and in winter, about minus 20 degrees. Nomadic pastoralism is the way of life there.

Sacred Places Nearby: There are nine renown sacred places along the Yellow River, and three of them are near to Mura Monastery. The first is the Dharma Valley at White Rock – a scared place of Avalokiteshvara. Many accomplished ones had lived there before, and one of them is the Resident Abbot and also the founder of Labrang Monastery – the Khenchen from Amdo.

Other practitioners including the 1st Dodrupchen Rinpoche who was the throne-holder of Longchen’s lineage, also practised in a cave there. This sacred place was also mentioned by many Tibetan scholars in their books. This is what they said: “On the rocks, are the self-arisen images of Avalokiteshvara and Hayagriva. There are also traces of the practice places of Guru Rinpoche and Yisie Tsogyal. In the caves, you can find traces of the imprints of Yisie Tsogyal’s body.”

The Sacred Place of Vajrakilaya is the second sacred place. Legend has it that it is not possible to explore this place in a hundred days, as there are countless caves there, including many big ones. Another feature of this place is that there are yellow fluids from aged bamboo resembling yogurt, as well as other minerals, flowing out from the caves. In addition, there is a spring that is said to be blessed by Medicine Buddha, in which the water became as sour as lemon juice. And seemingly,  as a result, this water became a cure for gallbladder and stomach ailments.

The rocky mountain known as the Sacred Site of Eight Wealth Gods is the third one. Like the previous mountain, it also produces bamboo yellow, crystalline and other types of minerals. At the foot of this mountain is a hot spring, reputed to treat conditions of the lower back, spine, and skin.

The Living Buddhas of Mura Monastery

This was found in the records about the prophecies of a few practitioners including the 1st Dodrupchen Rinpoche and Zangpa Drupchen (Tibet’s Longevity and Freedom): “Eight great bodhisattvas will be reborn; they will gather at Mura Monastery.” As we have already talked about Mura Monastery’s founders Dudul Langpa and Dugee Rechungpa earlier, we will now provide a brief of the other living buddhas here.

Eminent Monastics and Living Buddhas: Mura Wanggan; the female living Buddha – Mura Gyamo; Ontrul Rinpoche; Jongar Tulku.

Manifests of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas:

• Avalokiteshvara
  Dugee Rinpoche; 2nd Dugee Rinpoche; 3rd Dugee Rinpoche – Tenzin Nyingma; the 3rd Dugee Rinpoche – Sangpo Rinpoche
• Manjushri
  Jigme Dajay Rinpoche; 2nd Jigme Dajay Rinpoche
• Vajrapani and the Manifest of Mahasiddha Nagpopa/Kanhapa
  5th Kathog Rigzin Chenpo; 6th Kathog Rigzin Chenpo (9th Rigzin Chenpo, based on Jonang Lineage).
• Maitreya
  Jimpa Rinpoche; 2nd Jimpa Rinpoche – Thuning Tulku
• Sarvanivaraṇaviṣkambhin
  Chagtrul Rinpoche – Kunga Leksang; 2nd Chagtrul Rinpoche
• Kṣitigarbha and the Indian Mahasiddha Kukuripa – an inseparable manifestation:
  Mura Akan (The Old Chant Master) Rinpoche – Sonam Chophel
• Akasagarbha (Bodhisattva of Space Treasury)
  Ake Teshul Rinpoche – Lobsang Tsultrim Namgyal
• Samantabhadra
  Mura Sonam Gyaltsen Rinpoche

In addition, Mura Monastery also produced many other accomplished ones, including: Agong Rinpoche, Jigme Rinpoche, Tulku Tsepal (Gosai Rinpoche’s incarnation), Tezha Rinpoche, and others.