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Tawang Monastry

Tawang is famous for the majestic Tawang Monastery perched atop a ridge and surrounded by thick clouds and perennial mist, the Tawang Monastery seems to be suspended from heaven in an equally ethereal space. About 400 years old the Monastery is the 2nd largest and oldest in Asia and can house more than 700 monks. It controls 17 Gompas and a few Nunneries of the region. Mera Lama Lodre Gyatso founded the Tawang Monastery in 1681 in accordance to the wishes of 5th Dalai Lama; Nawang Lobsang Gyatso. The Monastery was built with the help of volunteers from neighboring villages. The Monastery is also grandiloquently called Galden Namgyal Lhatse meaning celestial paradise and one look at the monastery on a clear night will make one realize how true to its name it stands glowing like a phantasmagoria in the blue of the night.