By 960 AD, the church had become a Benedictine monastery, and the Abbey's black-robed monks were familiar figures at Westminster for almost 600 years, until Henry VIII split from Rome.

BBC: The hidden history of Westminster

In a ceremony for the winter solstice at the mountaintop monastery of Rumtek itself, drums throb, horns and conches low mournfully, and monks led by a cleric in elaborate robes and a huge black hat consign an offering to the bonfire.

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