In Haa people tell how the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century, set out to build temples across the Himalaya to pin down a demoness whose body lay over the land. To choose a site in this valley, he released two pigeons, one white and one black.
The white pigeon landed at a spot where the king built Lhakhang Karpo, the White Temple, and the black pigeon where he built Lhakhang Nagpo, the Black Temple, a short distance away. The two temples remain the spiritual heart of Haa, and the white one is the seat of the valley's protector deity.
Above the White Temple rise three peaks that locals call Miri Punsum, the three brothers, identified with the three bodhisattvas of compassion, wisdom and power. The valley's summer festival and its many local rituals still turn around these temples and peaks.
Sources
- Told locally in Haa
Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
