Simdha Getul Rinpoche went on the pilgrimage to the most holy place of Arya Avalokiteshvara with his family on 12th Septmber, 2021. This pilgrimage was long overdue due to numerous circumstances, it got postponed until date. There was a state of serenity and tranquility in this beautiful valley of Lahoul. People were kind and compassionate. Rinpoche relished every moment of his pilgrimage and of his time spent in Lahoul and Manali. 

This place is  called Garsha Khandroling in the Kullu, Lahaul-Spiti region in India. A great holy being from Tibet came to this area, and acted as a herder for goats and sheep for about twenty years. One family there was milking their goats but no milk was forthcoming. The holy man asked what happened and advised them to look the next day. Meanwhile, he went to a lake and on the land near the lake, he explained this situation to Chenrezig.

Chenrezig replied, "Carry me and go quickly. There’ll be a huge noise but don’t look back."

People there at that time, the ordinary beings, asked to see the statue and when the big noise happened, the herder looked back and saw seven white beings following Chenrezig, the Compassionate Buddha. The seven were enlightened beings, and when he looked at them, they absorbed into the lake. At that time in Garsha, the people were disharmonious. They were in two groups and when the statue arrived there, the herder couldn’t carry it anymore, so then it manifested as a marble stone for us ordinary beings. The herder also dissolved into the stone.

These days, ordinary people can pray there and get their wishes fulfilled.  The statue’s right hand is in the mudra of sublime realization while the left hand holds a lotus. It can be seen very clearly.

ན་མོ་ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཡ།

Homage to you, Lord of the World!

རིག་སྟོང་ཟུང་འཇུག་འོད་གསལ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྦུབས། །

riktong zungjuk ösal chenpö bub

In the vastness of clear light, awareness and emptiness inseparable,

ལྷན་སྐྱེས་གཉུག་མ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་ཐུགས། །

lhenkyé nyukma deshek nyingpö tuk

Lies the innate primordial nature, wisdom mind of the sugatagarbha.

མཐོང་བ་དོན་ལྡན་ལོངས་སྐུ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས། །

tongwa dönden longku chenrezik

To see you Avalokiteśvara, in your saṃbhogakāya form, is of the deepest meaning and moment;

ཁམས་གསུམ་འགྲོ་བའི་འདྲེན་པ་ཁྱོད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། །

kham sum drowé drenpa khyö chaktsal

I bow to you, the guide for all beings in the three realms:

རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཁྱེད་རང་ལྟ་བུར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

gyalsé khyerang tabur jingyi lob

Bless me to become a bodhisattva, just like you!