Chagpori

Chagpori, or Chakpori, Chokpori, Chagpo Ri (Wylie: lcags po ri, literally "Iron Mountain") is a spirit-mountain of Vajrapani in Lhasa, Tibet. It is south of Potala and is considered to be one of the four holy mountains of central Tibet. The Chagpori College of Medicine was built there in 1696, then destroyed by Chinese forces in 1959 and replaced by an antenna. Chagpori College of Medicine was rebuilt in Darjeeling, India in 1992.

Chagpori was the site of the monastic medical college of the same name founded there by Sangye Gyatso in 1696. This medical college, which incorporated a recently restored temple made by Thang Tong Gyalpo, was supplied with revenue generating lands and with a constant stream of students by a "monk tax". It remained an important medical and astrological institution in Tibet and Central Asia up until 1959 and the Lhasa uprising. Peter Aufschnaiter was photographed by Heinrich Harrer on top of the College of Medicine and Astrological Institute, the Men-Tsee-Khang using a theodolite for surveying the city of Lhasa. Aufschnaiter wrote, "Since 23 December 1947 I have been staying in Lhasa for some months to make a town plan, and have now been appointed to the government service by a decree of the Regent."

During the March 1959 Lhasa uprising, the medical school first built by the 5th Dalai Lama, then re-established in by the 13th Dalai Lama in 1916 as the Men-Tsee-Khang together with a temple housing statutes of Tsepame in coral, of Tujechempo in mother of pearl, and of Green Tara (Drolma) in turquoise were demolished by the People's Liberation Army artillery, as the Tibetans had one cannon up there. Jianglin Li's book Tibet in Agony: Lhasa 1959 says,

"On March 20 (...) That was the morning of the shelling of Chakpori Hill. While the Tibetan Medical Institute crumbled..."

The monk Jampa Phuntsok of the Namgyal Monastery recalled,

"when the bombardment of Chakpori Hill began (...) the Tibetans at the Potala could only watch as their beloved landmark went up in smoke."