Bylakuppe kannada:ಬೈಲಕುಪ್ಪೆ, Tibetian

Standard Tibetan

Standard Tibetan is the most widely used spoken form of the Tibetan languages. It is based on the speech of Lhasa, an Ü-Tsang dialect belonging to the Central Tibetan languages. For this reason, Standard Tibetan is often called Central Tibetan...

:བལཀུཔེ is the location of "Lugsum Samdupling" (established in 1961) and "Dickyi Larsoe" (established in 1969), two adjacent Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

an refugee settlements, as well as a number of Tibetan Buddhist

Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...

 monasteries. The area is located in the west of the Mysore district

Mysore district

Mysore District is an administrative district located in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. The district is bounded by Mandya district to the northeast, Chamrajanagar district to the southeast, Kerala state to the south, Kodagu district to the west, and Hassan district to the north...

 in the Indian state of Karnataka

Karnataka

Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

. Twin town Kushalanagara is present 6 kilometers from Bylakuppe.

Population

According to a demographic survey carried out by the Central Tibetan Administration's [Planning Commission]http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php?id=20&rmenuid=10 in 1998,{Planning Commission. 2004. Tibetan Community in Exile. Demographic and Socio-Economic Issues 1998 - 2001. Dharamsala: Office of Planning Commission} the refugees in the two settlements made up a population of 10,727 individuals at that time. However, it is unclear whether these figures included the Tibetan population in the monasteries. The settlements were established on land leased by the state government to accommodate some of the Tibetan refugees who came to resettle in India after 1959. Bylakuppe consists of a number of agricultural settlements / small camps close to each other, and has a number of monasteries, nunneries and temples in all the major Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Most notable among them are the large educational monastic institution Sera

Sera Monastery

Sera Monastery is one of the 'great three' Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet, located north of Lhasa. The other two are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery. The origin of the name 'Sera' is attributed to a fact that the site where the monastery was built was surrounded by wild roses in...

, the smaller Tashilunpo monastery (both in the Gelukpa tradition) and Namdroling monastery

Namdroling Monastery

The Namdroling Nyingmapa Monastery is the largest teaching center of Nyingmapa – a lineage of Tibetan Buddhism – in the world....

 (in the Nyingma

Nyingma

The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as Nga'gyur or the "old school" because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, in the eighth century...

tradition). Now the population of Indians and Tibetans crossed 50000 and Bylakuppe is slowly converting from a small village into a clean town. The weather of this town is very good so that you can enjoy it a lot. it is well connected by roads and nearly situated in the banks of kaveri river. Bylakuppe has many buddhist universities for advanced buddhist practices. Some of them are serajey, seramey, nalanda,etc.

Facilities

Bylakuppe is a small town. It has a police station, commercial banks, a telephone exchange, a post office, lodges and hotels. The town experiences a cool climate 365 days with heavy rains during the monsoon season. Transport facilities available are buses, auto-rickshaws and taxis.

How to reach?

Bylakuppe is situated on the state highway 88. It is well connected by roads with superior quality. Bus facilities are available from major towns like Mysore, Bengaluru, Mangalore, Chennai, Panaji, etc. Following are the distance between Bylakuppe and other cities in kilometers. Mysore (82), Bengaluru (220), Mangalore (172), Mandya (122), Chennai (585), Hassan (80), Mercera (36).

What to see?

The main attraction of the town is the Namrodoling Monastery (Golden Temple). While going towards Mercera from Mysore, turn left to first camp road in Bylakuppe. Move 4 kilometers and you'll get it. In the town if you go in thirumalaapura road for about a mile, you will get one of the largest lakes in Karnataka named as ingalakere (ingalagere). On the way to the lake, the green forest makes your mind cool. Near the lake, there is a old stone sculpture in which beautiful carvings is present. After this lake, there is rangaswamy temple on the top of the mountain (rangaswamy betta). Ganapathi temple adds beauty to the highway. There are many Buddhist monasteries and schools which give quality education for buddhist monks.

External links

• Brief description of Dickyi Larsoe
• Brief description of Lugsum Samdupling
• Sera monastery
• madhukarmohan at yahoo.com (wikipedia editor)
• Namdroling monastery
• Buddhism and Reaching Bylakuppe
• One of the houses at Sera Jey Monastic University
• [Bylakuppe page on Facebook by madhukar]