Chortens of Dochu-la

Location: Dochu-la, Thimphu Dzongkhag, Bhutan  
Coordinates: 27°29'24" N, 89°45'1" E
Elevation: 3100 meters (10,171 feet)
Era: 21st century
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The Druk Wangyal Khangzhang Chörtens (འབྲུག་དབང་རྒྱལ་ཁང་བཟང་མཆོད་རྟེན།) commemorate the Bhutanese soldiers killed in a battle against insurgents raiding Assam in India from Bhutanese territory in 2003. 108 chörtens were built on an artificial hill at Dochu Pass in the Himalayan mountains by Queen Mother Dorji Wangmo (རྡོ་རྗེ་དབང་མོ་དབང་ཕྱུག།) (*1955). [Note: the current King of Bhutan is her nephew, despite the title]. 

Chörten (མཆོད་རྟེན།) is the Tibetan and Bhutanese name for a structure found throughout Buddhism, and better known in the west by the Sanskrit name stupa. In China and countries influenced by Chinese Buddhism they developed into what we call pagodas. Originating as burial mounds in pre-Buddhist India, they are no longer directly associated with tombs, although they mostly contain either relics or objects with symbolic or holy powers. They are also the centre of the practice of circumambulation ('walking around)', which is always done in a clockwise fashion and in an odd number of rounds. Khangzhang Chörtens (བཟང་མཆོད་རྟེན།) are typically Bhutanese, and recognised by the red band below the eaves. 

Usually, one finds only a single chörten, or a small row of them symbolising the 12 steps of the Buddha's path: finding 108 in one place is quite exceptional. However, 108 is a highly symbolic number in Buddhism: rosaries of that religion have just such a number of beads. There are a number of explanations for this, one being a sutra (holy text) where the Buddha is asked 108 questions, and another holds that humans have 108 feelings - 6 senses (including consciousness) multiplied by 3 experiences (painful, neutral, pleasant), multiplied by 2 sources (internal or external), multiplied again by the 3 settings in time (past, present, future). 

Dochu-la (རྡ྄ོ་སྐྱོང་ལ།) or Dochu Pass - the term 'la' (ལ།) means 'mountain pass', so calling the place 'Dochula Pass' is a redundancy - separates the Bhutanese current capital of Thimphu (ཐིམ་ཕུ།) from the old one at Punakha (སྤུ་ན་ཁ།). From its 3100 meters (10,171 feet), some of the Himalayan peaks can be seen if the weather is clear