7. Bon Monasteries in Tibet and India

The religion achieved great revival and transformation with the establishment of sMen ri monastery in 1405 CE by mNyam med shes rab rgyal mtsan [1356-1415 CE], who studied at g.Yas ru dben sa kha and served as abbot of the dKar dmar dbu rtse colleges of the monastery. He was a contemporary of Tsongkhapa [rGyal ba blo bzang grags pa] and was said to have met and exchanged compliments with the dGe lugs master. He revived the destroyed g.Yas ru dben sa kha monastery as sMan ri in 1405 CE^[1], which became a great center of learning and spiritual practices. mNyam med she rab rgyal mtsan is venerated in Bonpo monasteries as the second Buddha who revived and propagated the teaching. sMen ri monastery's abbotship [Tib:sMan ri Khri dzin] started from him to the current thirty-fourth sMan ri Khri dzin Lung rtod zla ba dar rgyas, who assumed the abbotship in April 2018 at sMan ri monastery in Dolanji, Himachal Pradesh, India.

There were five or seven lineages of mKhar sna bsam brtan gling monastery starting from 'Gro mgon shes rab g.yung drung [b.1838] to Drang srong g.yung drung tshul khrims. 'Gro mgon shes rab g.yung drung was the twenty-fifth abbot of the sMan ri Monastery. Then there was Rab legs g.yung drung gling monastery established in 1834 CE near Yarlung Tsangpo. Some ten abbots from sNang ston zla ba rgyal mtsan to Sher rab bstan pai rgyal mtsan taught and administered the monastery. In the later half of the 19th century, a great rdZogchen master Shar rdza bkra shis rgyal mtshan (1858-1938 CE) arrived from Kham, who contributed greatly in dissemination and revival of the teachings. His follower, master Ga rgya khyung sprul 'jigs med nam mkha'i rdor rje established Khyunglung dnyul mkhar monastery near Mount Tise in 1936. The best estimate based on the data available, there are some three hundred and thirty^{[2] [3]} Bonpo monasteries in Tibet as of 1959 before the Chinese invasion, and some seventeen monasteries in India and Nepal as of 1987.