page_title: Tawang
section_title: Tawang Monastery
hierarchical_section_title: Tawang / Tawang Monastery
caption_attribution_description: English: During his life time the historical buddha specifically requested his likeness not be recorded in idolatrous form . This is a photograph I took of the statue of the Tibetan deity/archetype Sakyamuni Buddha in the Tawang Gompa in Arunachal Pradesh, India. It is a 8 metre gilded statue, the most important feature of the Gompa. The Sakyamuni Buddha was the earliest form of the Buddha to be worshipped in India. This form shows the Buddha in the moment he reached enlightenment, as depicted by the "ground-touching" position.
context_page_description: Tawang is a town in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, situated 448km north-west of state capital Itanagar at an elevation of approximately 3,048 metres. The town once served as the district headquarters of West Kameng district and became the district headquarters of Tawang district when it was formed from West Kameng.
  The area is part of the wider dispute between India and China concerning Arunachal Pradesh and is claimed by China as a part of the Tibet Autonomous Region
context_section_description: Tawang Monastery was founded by the Mera Lama Lodre Gyatso in accordance to the wishes of the 5th Dalai Lama, Nagwang Lobsang Gyatso. It belongs to the Gelugpa sect and is the largest Buddhist monastery in India. The name Tawang (Tibetan: རྟ་དབང་, Wylie: Rta-dbang) means Horse Chosen. It is said to be the biggest Buddhist monastery in the world outside of Lhasa, Tibet. It is a major holy site for Tibetan Buddhists as it was the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama.
  When the 14th Dalai Lama fled from Tibet to escape from the Chinese army, he crossed into India on 30 March 1959 and spent some days at the Tawang Monastery before reaching Tezpur in Assam on 18 April. Prior to 1959, the Dalai Lama refused to recognize India's sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh, including Tawang.  In 2003, the Dalai Lama said that "Arunachal Pradesh was actually part of Tibet". In January 2007, he said that in 1914, both the Tibetan government and Britain recognized the McMahon Line. In 2008, he said that "Arunchal Pradesh was a part of India under the agreement signed by Tibetan and British representatives". The Dalai Lama visited Tawang on 8 November 2009.  About 30,000 people, including those from neighbouring Nepal and Bhutan, attended his religious discourse.
caption: The 8m tall statue of the Shakyamuni Buddha in the Tawang Monastery
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