Dholamebar Gompa

This temple of the miraculous fire belongs to the Nyingma-pa sect of Buddhism and contains large and not very beautiful terracotta images of Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara, and Guru Padmasambhava. Immediately after you enter the gompa you will smell the obvious presence of gas that is different from any other gas you have smelled before. The flames of natural gas burn in little caves at floor level in the far right-hand corner. One does indeed burn from the earth; one burns just beside a little spring (from water) ; the one 'from stone' exhausted itself some years ago and so burns no longer, at which local people express concern. These fires are the precise reason why this gompa is also known by the name of Jwala Mai (a name later coined by the Hindus). You must have guessed what Jwala translates to in English: fire of course. In fact, this little gompa of the miraculous fire was here long before the Vishnu temple (Muktinath) and is considered very important by the Buddhists here. One can only speculate that Muktinath was built later to spread Hinduism in this part of Nepal. It is by no means a surprise that every religion wants to spread its wings far and wide and Hinduism is quite good at doing that.