The Legend and History of Bigu Gompa
24 Mar 2026 Bodhi Adventures
Recently, I visited Bigu Gompa in Dolakha for our future Buddhist travelers and spiritual journeys with Bodhi Adventures. The history of this beautiful monastery is deeply connected with legends and sacred visions.
The story goes back to 1932, when a devoted Dharma practitioner, Nyima Pasang Sherpa, requested Lama Sherap Dorje to build a monastery and offered land for it. The lama performed a torma offering, and when he clapped the offering cakes together, a natural spring suddenly arose from the ground. The spring still flows today.
That night, Lama Sherap Dorje dreamed of a mountainside with a handprint above and a footprint below imprinted in the rock. In the dream, he understood this land to be the abode of Zambala, the deity of wealth, and the surrounding mountains as the body of Zambala. This vision was taken as a prophecy and a sign that this was the auspicious place to build the monastery.
When he woke up, he sent someone to check the mountain, and the handprint and footprint were really there. The northern mountain range, Gauri Shankar, also resembles the form of Zambala from a distance. Therefore, the monastery was built at this sacred place known as Tashi Chime Gatsal — the “Joyful Grove of Fortune and Immortality.”
This region is also spiritually very important because the great Kagyu yogi Milarepa meditated in caves at Lapchi, just two days’ walk from Bigu. Lama Sherap Dorje himself also spent ten years in solitary retreat in the snow mountains north of Bigu. Nearby is also the retreat monastery Changchub Metok, meaning “Flower of the Enlightened Mind.”
Today, Bigu Gompa is home to around eighty resident nuns who perform daily prayers and pujas. The monastery contains one thousand statues of Thousand-Armed Chenrezig, a mani temple with one million Chenrezig mantras in prayer wheels, and a Kangyur temple with 108 volumes of the Buddha’s teachings.
Bigu Gompa is not only a beautiful Himalayan monastery — it is a living spiritual center, full of history, retreat caves, prayer, and compassion.
The surroundings of Bigu are a natural wonderland. A short walk through lush forests filled with wildlife and wildflowers leads to panoramic views of the Tibetan mountain ranges. The local community of Rolbaling, influenced by the teachings of Lama Sherap Dorje and Dukpa Rinpoche, has embraced Buddhism and stopped animal slaughter for rituals and food, reflecting deep compassion in daily life.
May the precious Dharma continue to flourish, increase, and may all be auspicious.
We look forward to bringing Buddhist travelers and spiritual seekers here in the future with Bodhi Adventures.
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