Uncategories The Road to Muktinath

Sunday, 10 April 2016

| 03:29

The Road to Muktinath

Muktinath is a sacred place both for Hindus and Buddhists located in Muktinath Valley at an altitude of 3,710 meters at the foot of the Thorong La mountain pass (part of the Himalayas), Mustang, Nepal. The site is close to the village of Ranipauwa, which is sometimes mistakenly called Muktinath as well. Within Hinduism, it is called the sacred place Mukti Kshetra, which literally means the "place of liberation or moksha". This temple is considered to be the 105th among the available 108 Divya Desam, which are considered sacred by the Sri Vaishnava sect.

 The ancient name of this place in Sri Vaishnava literature, before Buddhist origin, is Thiru Saligramam. This houses the Saligrama shila considered to be the naturally available form of Sriman Narayana - the Hindu Godhead. It is also one of the 51 Shakti peethams. The Buddhists call it Chumig Gyatsa, which in Tibetan means 'Hundred Waters'. Although the temple is has a Vaishnava origin, it is also revered in Buddhism.[3] For Tibetan Buddhists, Muktinath-Chumig Gyatsa is a very important place of Dakinis, goddesses known as Sky Dancers and one of the 24 Tantric places. They understand the murti to be a manifestation of Avalokitesvara
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