Photos by Edwin Moise, May 28, 2005

Ganden Monastery

The Ganden Monastery is on a mountain a considerable distance east (upstream along the Lhasa River) from Lhasa. It was established in the early 15th century by Tsongkhapa (Tsongkapa), the founder of the Gelugpa (Geluk, "Yellow Hat") sect, today the dominant religious sect in Tibet. It was destroyed--dynamited to rubble--during the Cultural Revolution. Its reconstruction began in 1982. The rebuilders did a decent job; it looked to my (admittedly ignorant) eyes like an old monastery, not a recent structure.


Stupa


I am not sure where they got all this wood.


This was a common motif in Tibetan iconography. Two unicorns, a male and a female (on the left and right, respectively, in the examples I recall seeing), contemplating (adoring?) a mandala.


The male unicorn, on the left, can be recognized by the short horn between his ears.


The female unicorn, on the right, lacks the horn.


Another pair of unicorns.


A group of monks.

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Copyright © 2005, Edwin E. Moïse. Revised June 18, 2005.