Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

3031 sites15 countries4 traditions30 centuries
Early modern · Buddhist · India

Tholung Monastery

Upper Dzongu, Mangan district, Sikkim · 27.6370°, 88.4610°

Nyingma lineage; relics of Lama Lhatsun ChenpoNamgyal (Chogyal) era
Sacred since
1789 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
1789; rebuilt 1980
Namgyal (Chogyal) era

History & significance

A remote Nyingma monastery at about 8,000 feet in Upper Dzongu, inside the buffer zone of Khangchendzonga National Park, first raised under Chogyal Phuntsog Namgyal II and built in its present form in 1789 by Pema Dechhen Gyatso, with the standing structure reconstructed in 1980. It safeguards manuscripts and relics carried here during the Gorkha invasions, shown to the public only once every three years at the Kamsil ceremony in April.

Sthala katha — the traditional account

What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.

The site is held to have been revealed as sacred ground in 1760 by the fourth Lhatsun, Kunzang Jigmed Gyatso.

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Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-28 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Namgyal (Chogyal) era