A living tradition: Bön in Nepal
Nepal has played an extremely important role in the development and preservation of Bön. Several major Bön family lineages were established here – such as Yangtön and Tretön lines – and many monasteries and gompas, such as Samling in Dolpo and Lubrak in Mustang, still live out the yearly cycle to the rhythm of Bönpo rituals, and many of the native ethnic groups, in particular the Tamang and Gurung, are inextricably linked with Bön.
More recently, following the Chinese Cultural Revolution, it was thanks to the texts held in Dolpo and Lubrak that the great masters Yongdzin Lopön Sanggye Tenzin Rinpoche, Menri Tridzin Lungtok Tenpi Nyima Rinpoche and Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche were able to gather the materials necessary to re-establish the full system of monastic education in exile[1].
From generation to generation
Recent research and expeditions of Bön and Western scholars to remote areas of Nepal Himalaya have documented the richness of the cultural heritage of ancient Yugdrun Bön found throughout the area down to the present day.
The communities of Dolpo, Mustang, Humla, Ghanpokhara and Dhorpatan are the living heirs of this ancient tradition, keeping it alive through their way of life and their everyday rituals, with family traditions handed down from generation to generation.
Many small monasteries, holy sites and caves, stupas, holy objects, manuscripts, relics and even countless ruins thousands of years old are living proof of the cultural vastness and depth of the Bön tradition and the land in which they flourished, the great kingdom of Zhang Zhung.