Other Monasteries in Tibet

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Tibet - China

Other Monasteries in Tibet:

Ganden Monastery (also Gaden or Gandain or Ganden Namgyeling) is one of the “great three” Gelug university monasteries of Tibet. Ganden Monastery was founded in 1409 by Je Tsongkhapa Lozang-dragpa, founder of the Gelug order. Monastery is at the top of Wangbur Mountain, Dagzê County at an altitude of 4,300 m.

Sakya Monastery, also known as Pel Sakya“White Earth” is a Buddhist monastery situated 25 km southeast of a bridge which is about 127 km west of Shigatse on the road to Tingri in Tibet. As the seat of the Sakya (or Sakyapa) school of Tibetan Buddhism, it was founded in 1073, by Konchok Gyelpo (1034–1102), originally a Nyingmapa monk of the powerful noble family of the Tsang and became the first Sakya Trizin.

Its powerful abbots governed Tibet during the 13th and the 14th centuries under the overlordship of the Mongol Yuan dynasty after the downfall of the Tibetan Empire until they were eclipsed by the rise of the new Kagyu and Gelug schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Its Mongolian architecture is quite different from that of temples in Lhasa and Yarlung.

Samye was the first gompa (Buddhist monastery) built in Tibet. It was probably first constructed between 775 - 779 under the patronage of King Trisong Detsen of Tibet who sought to revitalize Buddhism, which had declined since its introduction by King Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century. It was supposedly modeled on the design of Odantapuri in what is now Bihar, India.

Sera Monastery is one of the “great three” Gelug university monasteries of Tibet, located about 5 km north of the Jokhang. The origin of its name is attributed to a fact that the site where the monastery was built was surrounded by wild roses in bloom. The Sera Monastery, as a complex of structures with the Great Assembly Hall and three colleges, was founded in 1419 by Jamchen Chojey of Sakya Yeshe of Zel Gungtang (1355–1435), a disciple of Je Tsongkhapa.

Yumbu Lakhang is an ancient structure in the Yarlung Valley in the vicinity of Tsetang, Nêdong County, the seat of Lhoka Prefecture, in the southern Tibet Autonomous Region. According to legend, it was the first building in Tibet and the palace of the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo. Yumbu Lakhang stands on a hill on the eastern bank of the Yarlung River in the Yarlung Valley of southeast Nêdong County about 192 km southeast of Lhasa.

According to Bon traditions, Yumbu Lakhang was erected in the second century BC for the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo, who descended from the sky. Later, Yumbu Lakhang became the summer palace of the 33rd Tibetan king, Songtsän Gampo (604 - 650) and his Chinese princess, Wencheng.

After Songtsän Gampo had transferred the seat of his temporal and spiritual authority to Lhasa, Yumbu Lakhang became a shrine. A thousand years later, during the reign of the 5th Dalai Lama (1617-82), the palace was turned into a monastery for the Gelug school.