Pangboche Village and Monastery
Pangboche is home to a 600-year-old monastery (the first in the Khumbu Valley). Built around a rock where a famous lama once meditated, the dim interior is filled with old statues, crumbling relics, wrathful deities behind locked doors, and the exaggerated faces of carved masks used in ritual summer dances.
Monastery Interior (credit: Blandine Fayolle)
Men from this village, as from all in the area, are leaving their homes and families for the start of climbing season. It’s not surprising that we find three old lamas conducting a short ceremony for protection in this dangerous work. No one starts a journey or undertakes a risky venture in Nepal without a blessing first. Nearly every Sherpa going high on the mountain will pay for a ceremony at their home monastery in addition to the blessing the lamas will conduct for each and every group at base camp.
Pangboche Lama