Kharak

Kharak is a Bön sacred place in eastern Tibet, overlooking the Dzin River in the mountainous country of Kham. Its monastery, Kharak Yungdrung Dechen Ling, stands within a religious landscape whose traditions trace the site back to the early Tibetan kings. The river flows north to join the Drichu, the upper Yangtze, linking these remote valleys with the great waterway of eastern Tibet.

The monastery was founded by Tsultrim Gyeltsen, and its leadership remained in a hereditary family line. In the sixteenth century the scholar Yungdrung Tenpai Gyeltsen established a meditation centre at Kharak, while his pupil Namkha Lodrö built a three-storey assembly hall for its community. The monastery maintained religious connections with Bön centres in central Tibet and Kongpo.