About

Bylakuppe is the Tibetan Refugee resettlement, location of "Lugsum Samdupling" (established in 1961) and "Dickyi Larsoe" (established in 1969), in the west of Mysore district. The nearest town is Kushalnagar in Kodagu in the State of Karnataka. It is refugee resettlement, a gesture of kindness shown by the then Government of India which is now divided into two settlement. The Golden Temple in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, is a home for thousands of Tibetans living in exile and a center for Tibetan Buddhism in South India.

The 40 ft tall golden Buddha statues are the major attractions of Bailkoppa. The statues of Buddha, Padmasambhava, and Amitayus are the notable ones. The walls of the temples and the institutions are decorated with colorful paintings depicting gods and demons from Tibetan Buddhist mythology. The altar is decorated with flowers, candles and incense sticks. Apart from the calm and peaceful surroundings, there are shopping centers near the temples where one can shop for traditional Tibetan items like costumes, statues, carpets, jewelry, etc.

The Tibetan refugees make up a population of about 10,000. It consists of a number of small camps/agricultural settlements 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, the smaller Tashilunpo monastery (both in the Gelukpa tradition) and Namdroling monastery (in the Nyingma tradition). The spectacular Golden Temple which is also a major tourist spot in the area.

Bylakuppe the largest and the cream of the Tibetan settlement, where the modern Tibetan culture could be seen abundantly with the huge monastery, needs a special permit for the foreigner. For the special pass, it would take approximately 2 to 3 months to be cleared from the Indian Home ministry. So if you happen to like this wonderful place, we might need to work out the special pass as soon as possible. The best thing about the pass is valid for a year. So once we have the pass, we can visit this place any time of the year.

Monastery

The settlement has 5 monasteries. Namely:

1. Sera Jey Monastery,
   
2.  Namdrolling monastery,
   
3. Nyingma monastery,
   
4. Sakya monastery,
   
5. Nyingma monastery.

Sera monastery is the biggest monastery among them with almost 3000 monks.

When to go:

• Tibetan New Year is celebrated in February/March
  
• Sagadawa the holy festival is celebrated in May/June
  
• Buddha Jayanthi in June.
  
• Dalai Lama's birthday on July 6

Tips

•  If you are into exploring different cultures then ensure that you have at least 4-5 hours for this place
  
• Do not touch the statues and other sacred objects inside monasteries.
• Walk in bare-foot into the monasteries as a sign of respect. Do not carry your shoes upon you while entering the monasteries.
• The best timing is to visit either the early morning or early evening when the chants begin. 
  
• Tourists ARE MOST welcome and can take pics, but remember this is a place of worship. So be sober and mindful of that.
  
•  Please note that Monks will not click any snap with you and so better not to disturb them.
• There are no charges for entry - however, if you are traveling by a vehicle, you do need to pay parking charges.
• this is a religious place and not an amusement park. So read the instruction before creating a mess.
• The Golden Temple monastery is some 90km away from Mysore and will take about 2hrs to reach. So account for the travel time.

Timings