Famous Temples in India

Architecture

The monastery follows a unique architecture which is an artistic adaptation of Gyanak Riwo Tse-Nga or the sacred mountain with five peaks in China. The monastery built around the then small hamlet of Gangtok became a religious center. The location was blessed by Lama Drupthob Karpo, a renowned exponent of tantric (adept) art in Buddhism with flying powers. Initially a small Gompa was established by him after he flew from Maenam Hill in South Sikkim to this site. The walls of the monastery structure are about 500mm thick. Their internal surfaces are covered with decorative plasters depicting images of Gods, Goddesses and other religious symbols. Inside the masonry walls of this two-story structure, a timber frame is provided. Such a frame consists of four timber columns connected by timber beams in both the principal directions. The floor consists of wooden beams and planks, while the roof is made of Galvanised Iron (GI) sheeting supported by timber trusses. The masonry walls of this structure had undergone severe shear cracks. It was observed that these cracks generally propagated from the window and door openings and were primarily created due to diagonal tension generated by the action of lateral seismic shear. The photographs taken from inside of the monastery, illustrate the issue where examples of the generation of diagonal shear cracks from the corners of a window and a door opening are shown. It was further observed that there was an absence of horizontal and vertical reinforcements around such openings. The existing lintel bands were found to be of inadequate strength. Further illustrates the above issue of diagonal shear crack through external photographs of the monastery. Along with the diagonal shear cracks, vertical and horizontal shear cracks had also developed in the walls and other structural elements of the monastery. Demonstrates the example of a vertical shear crack occurring through the capitals of a typical column of the Enchey Monastery.

The monastery was built at the exact location where Lama Druptub Karbo had his hermitage. The monastery is topped by a shining golden cupola. The walls of the monastery in the large prayer hall are fully covered with paintings and murals of four religious kings, the deities of the four cardinal directions as stated in the scriptures and the entire galaxy of Mahayan Buddhist deities. Manuscripts of scriptures are kept in an almirah. The four pillars supporting the roof of the monastery are elaborately carved. Built under the Nyingma order, it houses 90 monks. The windows of the monastery are very ornately carved and painted. The monastery has a large collection of masks which are used for the annual ritual dances. As its name implies, monastery has a peaceful atmosphere and also maintains a good library. A very serene atmosphere has been created with the colourful prayer flags fluttering around the monastery. Like all other Nyingmapa monasteries in Sikkim, this monastery is also under the jurisdiction of the Pemayangtse Monastery. The monastery was gutted in 1947. However, it was rebuilt in 1948 with the support of the devotees.