Home/What is Zangdok Palri?
ཟངས་མདོག་དཔལ་རི
What is
Zangdok Palri?
The Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain — the pure land of Guru Padmasambhava, and the temple rising in its image at Dundul Raptenling Monastery in Odisha, India.
01The pure land
The Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain
Zangdok Palri means “the Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain”. It is the pure land of Guru Padmasambhava, the great master revered as Guru Rinpoche, who brought Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century.
After establishing the Dharma in Tibet, Guru Rinpoche departed for the land of the rakshasas to the southwest. There, according to the tradition, he manifested the Palace of Lotus Light on the summit of the Copper-Colored Mountain, where he continues to teach and to benefit beings.
For practitioners of the Nyingma tradition, Zangdok Palri is the pure land of Guru Rinpoche’s enlightened body, speech and mind. Its description in the treasure teachings, the terma, has inspired prayers, paintings and temples for centuries.
02The palace
A palace in three levels
The Palace of Lotus Light is described as rising in three storeys, each one a body of enlightenment. The architecture is itself the teaching.
Nirmanakaya, the ground floor: the emanation body, the form that enters the world and can be met — Guru Padmasambhava, the Precious Master, in his palace.
Sambhogakaya, the middle floor: the body of perfect enjoyment, radiant and ornamented — Avalokiteśvara, the embodiment of compassion.
Dharmakaya, the summit: the truth body, beyond form and colour — Amitābha, Boundless Light.
Temples built in the image of Zangdok Palri follow this plan, so that walking through them is a passage from the form that can be met to the form beyond form.
03Devotion
Why practitioners turn to Zangdok Palri
Devotees of Guru Rinpoche recite prayers of aspiration to be reborn in Zangdok Palri, to meet Guru Rinpoche face to face and to receive his teachings. Many sing these prayers daily, and especially on Guru Rinpoche Day, the tenth day of the lunar month.
Across the Himalayas and beyond, temples have been built as earthly representations of the Copper-Colored Mountain, so that the blessings of the pure land can be seen, entered and offered to.
04In Odisha
Zangdok Palri at Dundul Raptenling Monastery
At Dundul Raptenling Monastery in Odisha, India — named in 1961 by His Holiness Dudjom Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje Rinpoche and led today by Lama Sonam Tashi Rinpoche — a three-storey Zangdok Palri temple is rising as a living mandala of the Dudjom Tersar lineage.
Design and engineering began in 2016 and ground was broken in March 2017. Today the temple is more than 80% complete: the foundation and outer structure stand, and the final phase of sacred art, murals and gardens is under way.
The temple will be consecrated on 6 March 2028, in a gathering of the Nyingma, Dudjom Tersar and Chöd sanghas and of pilgrims from around the world.
