Tashilhunpo Monastery Part 2

As Tashilhunpo Monastery has a high status in Tibetan Buddhism, the visiting time and open areas for tourists are limited. It has the same policy as visited The Potala Palace. We only had 1.5 hours to visit this monastery and all the photographs were forbidden inside every hall.

In that situation, we only chose some special halls to visit. The first one is the Jambu Chyenmu (Maitreya) temple. This temple is the tallest building on the west side of the monastery. Inside that temple, there is the world largest copper Jampa statue, which is 26.2 meters high and decorated with 210kg gold and more than 1400 jewels. If I can stand beside the statue’s face, his nose would be taller than me. The Jampa is considered to be the future Buddha of Tibetan Buddhism. So the statue is in a half-stand and half sit position, which means he can stand up at anytime to rescue people in the future.
 

Jampa Statue

The second place I visited was the Holy Stupas Hall. The Holy Stupas Hall enshrines the stupas for the past Panchen Lama. Inside the hall there are 8 stupas for the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Panchen Lama. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the stupas of Fifth to Ninth Panchen Lama were damaged, and the Tenth Panchen Lama, rebuilt them into one stupa in 1989. Thus, inside the Holy Stupas Hall we only can see three stupas. Just like the stupas in the Potala Place, all the stupas in Tashilhunpo monastery were decorated with vast gold and jewelries. And these decorations are all from the Buddhists, who believe all the treasure should consecrated to the Buddha.  

An hour and a half was a very short time for me; I couldn’t have a deeper exploration of this monastery. But on the other hand, it was a good thing for me. It is like a recall for me to comeback to Tibet, because there are too many places that I haven't visited yet.