English: This exhibit displays Chenreyzig Choepa (Offerings to Avalokiteshvara)

The choepa (offerings) displayed here is in complement to the sand mandala of Avalokiteshvara. This exquisite work of arts was made by four monk artists of Namgyal Monastery, Dharamsala in March 2017.

In the rituals of Vajrayana Buddhism, making offerings is a means to develop the practice of generosity and thus earn merit for eventual enlightenment. Some choepas are made as representations of deities and their retinues. Even though these may bear no physical resemblance to the depictions of deities that we see in the Tibetan Buddhist paintings, their abstract shapes and vivid colours capture the essence of a particular deity's enlightened qualities and thereby symbolize the deity. The choepa also serve as a physical basis for the visualization of offerings that are vast and limitless.

This is Chenreyzig Choepa, offerings to Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the manifestation of Buddha of Compassion. Tormas, the sacrificial cakes, at the sides of the main offering, are offerings to other deities and even to unenlightened spirits in order to appease them so that they will not harm us in our spiritual progress.

Himalayan Tibet Museum is a newly inaugurated museum in Darjeeling that was built in the year 2015. It was built by Tibetan guru Gurung Tulku Nima Hoiser Rinpoche to mark the 80th birthday of H.H Dalai Lama.