See also: Fire Prevention Training Program, 2006

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Site where Ragyi Monastery's main temple once stood. Now there is only rubble.

Disaster at Ragyi Monastery

by Pamela Logan,
May 19, 2002

Contents of this report

The monks were waiting for us two old men in shabby robes, and a young traba standing by the roadside. Their eyes were bright with welcome, and they held tattered khata in their outstretched hands. It wasn't what I expected. I imagined a rather gala parade of well-dressed monastic intelligentsia. Instead, the people I saw were poor, rural, and old.

Pamela Logan interviewing a monk about the disaster,

The three greeters piled into our car for the ride up the steep hill. The two old men squeezed into the back with me and two teammates, and the little boy sat on Dana Isherwood's lap in front. In this overcrowded fashion, we climbed about a hundred meters up the steep canyon wall. When we arrived, what I saw made me terribly sad. Three months ago, a terrible fire had completely consumed their Assembly Hall and Cultural Relics Hall, a combined building that once dominated the complex. Where once must have stood grand temples bursting with sacred treasures, there was now only a pile of timber, blackened and useless. At the edge of the site, a few humble dwellings had escaped the fire. The rest had disappeared.

We were led into one of the dwellings, the home of Dorje Lodi Rinpoche, and it was positively the shabbiest house I have ever seen for an incarnate lama. There were no stairs to reach his quarters, only notched log ladders. The tulku's reception room did not even have cushions for visitors to sit on, only carpets spread on the floor. Tables were full of soft drinks, probably purchased with the monastery's last remaining cash. The monks seemed relieved when I asked for chuki (hot water) to drink instead.

Monk holding remains of a sacred statue that was destroyed in the fire.

The monks recited the facts of the disaster. It happened this past winter, on the tenth day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar (Feb 26, 2002). A butter lamp started the fire, they believe. They showed us photos of the ruins immediately afterward. Then, to my astonishment, they handed me a video CD. We played it in a laptop computer, and saw sad footage of monks, villagers, and townspeople crawling over smoldering ruins.

More facts about Ragyi Monastery (Chinese name: Ruji). It has a population of seventy-five adult monks, fifteen boys (who are not counted on the official roster), and one incarnate lama, the aforementioned Dorje Lodi, who is currently away visiting Kumbum Monastery in Amdo. Ragyi's founder was named Gomba Rinchen, and Ragyi belongs to the Nyingma school. It is more than 700 years old, and has been located at the current site for 300 years - the age of the lost temples.

Ragyi Monastery lies within Xinlong (Nyarong) County, which is classified as a "national poor county"-one of four so classified in Ganzii The seat at Rulong is a tiny, blink-and-you'll-miss-it town located on no major thoroughfare, on the way to nowhere. While Rulong is at a mere 3080 meters above sea level, the steep terrain inhibits farming. Virtually no vegetables are grown locally; instead they are brought in from Luding and points east. Food is correspondingly expensive.

Nyarong's capital doesn't look like much, but in the mid-19th century, native son Gonpo Namgyal managed to conquer a huge portion of eastern Kham for Nyarong, including the once-mighty Derge Kingdom. This annoyed the Lhasa government, which disliked upstart local chieftains. Nyarong's moment in the sun was brief, for, following an audience with the Dalai Lama, Gonpo Namgyal was murdered while traveling back to Kham.

Rulong town, the capital of Xinlong/Nyarong.

Later, in 1936, communist fighters of the "Red Four Directions Army" and the Sixth Red Army, two contingents of the Long March, converged on Rulong from two directions. So says an inscription on the Monument to Revolutionary Heroes in the town. The combined forces fought a pitched battle to take the town, but the inscription doesn't reveal whether their opponents  were Guomindang or local Tibetans. Headstones in the cemetery date to the 1960s, and belong to prominent officials in the county government, both Tibetan and Han.

Nyarong has long been considered a Nyingma stronghold; nevertheless it contains monasteries of all four sects of Buddhism; it also has the largest Bon monastery in Ganzi Prefecture, Ishi Monastery.

Back to Ragyi Monastery. It is not close to Rulong at all; it lies about an hour to the south, and is approached via the dirt road that connects Nyarong to Litang, 23 km north of the place where the highway joins the Yalong River. From the highway, the monastery is invisible. If not for the waiting monks, we would never have found it.

The monks recited the list of lost treasures about one hundred thanka paintings; more than 35 precious statues, more than 400 volumes of Tibetan classical works in gold or silver, including their editions of the canonical Buddhist works, the Kangyur and Tengyur. The main temple had been huge 80 columns supported its roof. "The people cried so hard" said Acha, a local farmer. "The monastery had five sacred images made of brass and more than three meters high - all lost."

The monks.showed us the small storage room containing the pathetic remains of Ragyu's treasure eleven printing blocks, the head of a statue (carried out of the burning building on the back of a monk), a small pile of books, eight horns, one large thanka, two smaller cheap thankas. They had carefully extracted and preserved the burnt remains of the brass statues, but the pieces were unrecognizeable. It was a sad lot.

Remaining monks at Ragyi. The others have gone to the forest to cut timber for rebuilding,

Despite this terrible loss, and the poverty of the monastery, the monks are doing what they can to rebuild. Using 41,300 yuan donated by an American aid organization last year, they had purchased a tractor and some other machinery. On the day of our visit, thirty-two monks - all of the young strong ones - were in the mountains cutting trees for timber. (this is the first time I've ever heard of monks doing hard physical labor in modern-day Tibet) Many tractor-loads of stone have already been delivered to the site.

Yet there is much, much more to do. Hundreds of skilled workers will be needed to assemble the materials. Local people have volunteered to contribute their family treasures, but the new building will still need paint, carpets, brocade, murals, and more. Besides Dorje Lodi Rinpoche, several other members of the community are out seeking donations for the huge project that lies ahead.

The monks asked if we would help. We did give them some personal donations, but this type of project - direct support of a religious institution - is one that Kham Aid Foundation's charter prohibits us from undertaking. If someone reading this would like to get involved, either by making donations to Ragyi, or by fundraising on its behalf, then please let me know and I will put you in touch with the monastery.

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