I have finally made it to Yanglesho after a good 20 years since I first heard about it. In these 20 years, of course, my spirituality has matured too, for me to fully appreciate the significance of this place. So, let me share here, for the benefit of all sentient beings. As they say, I think my Moelam (destiny) has matured to be here, at this time. 🙂 🙂 🙂

As an adherent of #Vajrayana Buddhism, nothing compares to a pilgrimage to the Asura caves at Yanglesho, where Guru #Padmasambhava attained, to put it simplistically, enlightenment. To be more precise, it was here that he achieved Yangdak (ཡང་དག་), corresponding to the Enlightened Mind, after practicing the Yangdak Heruka (ཡང་དག་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་). Yangdak Heruka is a wrathful manifestation of #Vajrasattva (Dorji Sempa) and is similar to the deity Chakrasamvara (Demchok).

Several past and contemporary masters, chief among them the Late Jadrel Rimpoche and Chokyi Nima Rimpoche, consider Yanglasho as important as Bodh Gaya for practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, especially the #Nyingma school.

Yanglasho, also appears in the history of #Bhutan as the place where the envoys of King Sindhu Raja of #Bumthang found him when they came looking for him. (In fact I first heard about Yanglasho when I did a documentary, In the Footsteps of Guru, for BBS in the 2004) 

After he was exiled from his kingdom, he lived as a wandering yogi, visiting mainly the charnel grounds. When he visited the Parushakavana charnel ground, he came across the wrathful Vajravarahi (Dorje Phagmo), who agreed to initiate him, and help him attain the Knowledge-Holder of Spiritual Maturity. In Pema Kathang, Guru says Dorje Phagmo is his (adopted) mother. Guru, then, moved to Maratika Caves in eastern Nepal where he attained the Knowledge-Holder of Immorality – gaining victory over the Lord of Death. In Bodhgaya (Dorje-Dhen in Dzongkha), he achieved the Knowledge-Holder of Spontaneity. And finally in Yanglasho, he became the Knowledge-Holder of #Mahamudra. 

Of these four knowledge-holder attainments, the Knowledge-Holder of Mahamudra is supreme.

May everyone make it, or be blessed.