After visiting the Yamdrok Lake, our next
stop was Tashilhunpo Monastery. When people come to Tibet, one of the most
important things is to experience the mysterious Tibetan Buddhism. Tashilhunpo
Monastery is one of the major temples for Gelug or The Yellow Hat Sect, which
is one of the schools of Tibetan religions. Also the Tashilhunpo Monastery is
the home for the Panchen Lama. Panchen Lama is the highest-ranking lama after
the Dalai Lama in Gelug. And he is also deemed as the living Buddha.
The monastery is located in Shigatse, which
is the second- largest city in Tibet. And the Tashilhunpo monastery is located
on a hill in the center of the city. The name of Tashilhunpo is means “All the fortune
and happiness would gather here.” Tashilhunpo Monastery was founded in 1447 CE
by Gedun Drub who was the first Dalai Lama. Later the Fourth Panchen Lobsang
Chökyi Gyalsten expanded the monastery. Since then, all the Panchen Lamas have
resided at Tashilhunpo and continued to expand the monastery.
When I arrived at the monastery, it is only
3 days after its yearly biggest event, the Buddha portrayals exhibit festival.
On that day, the Tashilhunpo monastery would exhibit three huge Buddha portrayals
on the wall. These three portrayals are 32 meters high and 42.5 meters wide,
and reflect three Buddhas: Amitābha，Shijiamouni，and Jampa (Maitreya).
Thousands of Tibetan Buddhists will come to the Tashilhunpo and pray to those
three huge Buddha portrayals. This is a three-day festival and Buddhists will
have the chance to meet Panchen Lama, and receive his blessing by stroking
their head.
Although during the Buddha Portrayals exhibit
festival, I was in Tibet, but I didn’t get the chance to attend this festival because
it was not opened for the tourists. When I arrived at Tashilhunpo I could still
find some special decorations for that festival and see a lot Buddhists who stayed
in the monastery.
To be continue…
Need more information about Tashilhunpo
Monastery? See you on my next blog post.
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