In the Bön world of the Himalayas, Menri Monastery (Menri Monastery) is a name that cannot be bypassed. It is regarded as the mother monastery of Bön—just as Samye is to Nyingma and Ganden is to Gelug, Menri is the religious center and seat of the Bön lineage. Today's Menri Monastery lies in Dolanji, Himachal Pradesh, India—a Dharma-lineage home re-established in the south after Bön monks left Tibet in the twentieth century.

Bön is among the oldest strata of faith on the snowy plateau, taking deep root both before and after the arrival of Buddhism. The significance of Menri lies in its having steadied and sustained this ancient tradition in the form of "monastery + Dharma seat," allowing Bön's study and practice, rites, and worldview to pass from generation to generation.

Menri's origin traces to the early fifteenth century. The important Bön scholar and practitioner Nyammé Sherab Gyaltsen (often rendered in Tibetan as "Menri Lodrö Gyaltsen") founded Menri Monastery in Tibet around 1405, and established the "Menri Trizin" (Menri Trichen) lineage that would continue for centuries thereafter.

The "Menri Trizin" is among the most revered Dharma offices in the Bön world, regarded as the supreme symbol of Bön teaching. Each holder undergoes rigorous study and recognition, inherits the predecessor's lineage, and then through a lifetime of upholding, teaching, and realization, passes the lineage to the next.

Historically, Menri Monastery stood in Tibet. In the mid-twentieth century, as circumstances changed, many Bön monks and followers left their homeland. The 33rd Menri Trizin (Lungtok Tenpai Nyima) led his community to rebuild Menri Monastery in Dolanji, Himachal Pradesh, India, giving this lineage a new home in the south.

Today's Dolanji Menri Monastery is both a place of practice and learning, and it maintains a college for young monks, teaching Bön's nine-vehicle doctrine, rites, astrology, and the science of healing. It has thereby become Bön's spiritual coordinate in the world.

What Menri carries is a complete and ancient Bön system. Its core may be summarized as the "nine vehicles"—progressing step by step from worldly practices up to the highest path of liberation, layer upon layer, corresponding to practitioners' differing capacities and stages.

Like Buddhism, Bön values the mandala, the meditational deity, recitation practice, and altruism; unlike Buddhism, it retains distinctive features in worldview, indigenous deities, and ritual detail. Menri is precisely where these traditions are systematically preserved, taught, and practiced—for researchers, a window into the "snow-land spiritual world before the arrival of Buddhism."

Today's Menri Monastery remains an active center of practice and learning. Should you go to Dolanji, the sequence is roughly as follows:

The Mountain Gate and the College—the monastery is built against the mountain; the college is the core where young monks study the nine vehicles and the rites.

The Main Hall and Stupas—the main hall enshrines Bön's meditational deities; outside, stupas and mani stones continue the snow-land's abiding faithscape.

Ceremonies and Offerings—on major festivals, monks hold grand offering rites and assemblies, the most direct occasion to observe Bön's living tradition.

Circumambulation and Sutra Turning—as in all parts of Tibet, the faithful circumambulate the monastery and turn the prayer wheels clockwise.

The visitor's etiquette matches elsewhere: quiet, reverent, do not point at the Buddha statues, do not photograph inside the halls. This is not a museum, but a place of daily study and practice.

Q: Which tradition does Menri Monastery belong to?

A: Menri is the mother monastery and seat of Bön, sustaining the "Menri Trizin" lineage, regarded as one of the supreme symbols of Bön teaching.

Q: Why is Menri Monastery in India?

A: Historically Menri stood in Tibet; after the mid-twentieth century, as Bön monks left Tibet, the 33rd Menri Trizin rebuilt the monastery in Dolanji, Himachal Pradesh, India, allowing the lineage to continue in the south.

Q: What is Bön's "nine vehicles"?

A: The nine vehicles are a summary of Bön's study-and-practice system, progressing layer upon layer from worldly practices to the highest path of liberation, corresponding to different capacities and stages of practice; Menri is precisely the core center where this system is taught and practiced systematically.

▶延伸观看Speech of Delight — Fire ritualTriten Norbutse · 于 YouTube 观看

• Menri Feb 2016.jpg · Unpurrceivable / CC BY-SA 4.0
• His Holiness 33rd Menri Trizin Rinpoche.jpg · Bon Foundation / CC BY-SA 4.0

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