Ganden Monastery


Ganden Monastery is one of the 'great three' Gelugpa university monasteries of Tibet, located on
Wangbur Mountain, Tagtse County, 47 kilometers from Lhasa. The other two are Sera Monastery and
Drepung Monastery.

It was founded in 1409 by Tsong Khasa, at originator of the Gelukpa, or Yellow Hatsect. As the abbot of
Gandan, Tsong Khapa preached Buddhism and wrote many books here. Gandan covers an enormous
area, as building continued for generations.

Being the furthest from Lhasa of the three university monasteries, Ganden traditionally had a smaller
population with some 6,000 monks in the early 20th century. However, it was the original monastery of
the Geluk order, founded by Tsongkhapa himself in 1409, and traditionally considered to be the seat of
Gelug administrative and political power.

A legend says that when Tsong Khapa was born, there was a Buddhist tree growing from the bleeding cut of his umbilical cord. And there was an
image of a lion roaring towards Buddha on every leaf on this tree that had 100,000 leaves.

Main structures in the monastery consist of the Main Assembly Hall (Tshomchen) and Tantric colleges.
The hall has 108 pillars and occupies a floor space of 1,600 square meters, capable of holding 3,500
lamas. Maitreya and Tsong Khapa are enshrined and worshiped in the hall. Left of the huge hall is a
small hall, which was the numen chapel of the monastery. The chapel was built in 1416 and the fourth
Panchen added gold roof to it in 1610. Behind the chapel, there is a huge stone flying here from India
according to legend.

The monastery has extremely delicate and fine murals and sculptures. It also keeps an armor decorated
with gems, which was worn by Emperor Qianlong and was bestowed to the monastery as an offer to
Tsong Khapa. Its thangkas are special and similar with embroidery of south China. The most important
and valuable arts left are the paintings of Buddha and Jataka stories drawn by the First Panchen Lama.