Tabo Gompa

Tabo Gompa is a Buddhist monastery built over 1000 years ago in 996 AD. It has been visited several times by the Dalai Lama. He plans to retire there when he finishes active work. Tabo Gompa is a world heritage site. It is the oldest monastery in the world that has continually stayed open (no periods of closure and then re-opening). See: List of Buddhist Records and Trivia.

It is in the center of the dry Spiti Valley, India. It is a two hour drive over rough roads to the next town. It is very cold eight months of the year. It has a community of monks living there and a school for children. It has a small library with a comprehensive collection of books about Buddhism and the Dalai Lama and Tibet. The old monastery also has irreplaceable frescos and statues of the Buddha in the temples of the complex, which look like a group of adobe houses from the outside.