Chim-puk is a retreat site in the hills south of Samye Monastery, the oldest monastery in Tibet. It is not a single building but a scatter of small huts, caves and chapel rooms spread across the slope of a valley, occupied by hermits and nuns who live there in retreat. Its importance in Tibetan history is considerable: several of the founders of Tibetan Buddhism are said to have meditated in its caves, and it has functioned continuously as a place of retreat for more than a thousand years, which makes it one of the oldest continuously used religious sites in the region.
The walk in
Chim-puk is reached on foot from near Samye, usually starting at a hermitage or parking point below the ridge and walking up through the valley for an hour or more, depending on how far up you go. The path passes small stone huts with prayer flags above the doors, mani walls, cairns and springs, and the higher you climb the sparser the buildings become and the wider the view across the Yarlung valley. It is a walk up a sacred hillside rather than a sight with a ticket office, and almost nobody is there outside the pilgrimage season.
The caves and the hermits
The most visited sites are the caves associated with the eighth-century masters who established Buddhism in Tibet, several of which have been enclosed with masonry fronts to form small chapels containing images and offerings. Alongside them are the huts of contemporary hermits, who live in retreat for years at a time with support from relatives and from Samye. Their privacy is the point of the place, and visitors are expected to keep away from the occupied huts and to stay on the path. Small chapels stand open for pilgrims to make offerings, and there are usually a few people doing prostrations or circumambulations.
Practical notes
Foreign visitors to Tibet travel on a permit and with a guide, and Chim-puk is visited as part of a trip to Samye, usually in the same day or with a night in Samye village. There is no accommodation at Chim-puk itself and no facilities beyond a spring and a few small stalls in season. The walk is uphill at altitude, so allow two to three hours for the round trip and take water. Because the site is a place of retreat, keep quiet, do not photograph the hermits or their huts, and treat the chapels as religious buildings rather than as monuments. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, and the pilgrimage calendar is busiest in summer.
