Khahor (Khawar) Goenpa

Khahor Goenpa, in full Khahor Rigzin Choeling Goenpa and also written Khawar, is a hilltop monastery at about 2,090 m in Khar gewog, on the ridge south of Tsebar. The national heritage register dates the lhakhang to the 18th century and records it as community-owned. A community of monks lives here, young novices among them.

The buildings are new or newly rebuilt. The main lhakhang, with its three-tier roof and golden finial, stands on a new stone-paved courtyard, and beside it rises a large assembly hall with carved window bays, round medallions and a railing of tall prayer flags along its edge, with long views over the valley.

What Khar tells

People in Khar tell of an elderly couple who owned a wooden grinder that turned every cup of grain into a cup of flour. One day they opened its cover. Two parrots flew out, and left their mark on the mountain as they went.

They also tell of Lama Joktang. As a young cowherd he found a giant serpent stealing his milk, and cut it in two. He took refuge with a master, was ordained, and was told to found a monastery of his own. He knew he had found the place when a tiger came to him as he sat in meditation.

Getting up

The road to Khahor leaves the Pemagatshel–Nganglam highway beside the Tsebar Jarung Khashor Chorten and climbs 4 km, about half an hour on an unpaved surface to the courtyard. Thonphu Goenpa, the hermitage above the same chorten, is 6 km and about half an hour up a road of its own. See things to do in Pemagatshel for the rest of the district.