According to the legend, this was the spot where Samantabhadra stopped his elephant to have a rest in a pool on his way to the mountain top - thus the name.
Imagine an ancient monastery, with only a handful a people, up in the clouds, with red walls and forgotten silence. Imagine monkeys slowly taking over it, sitting all around on the irregular walls, next to slant walls, playing, and waiting for people to come.
I never really thought places like this exist, but they do.
(Oh, by the way: this entry was written by Peter Molnar, and originally posted on petermolnar dot net.)
