Gaden Monastery

Ganden monastery lies 47km east of Lhasa and is situated at 4500m in a bowl like an amphitheater. Ganden was the first Gelugpa monastery and has remained the main seat of this major Buddhist order ever since. It was founded in 1409 by the great Tsongkhapa, the revered reformer of the Gelugpa order. He was the first abbot of Ganden Monastery and the appointed head of the Gelug sect.

The enthusiastic zest with which the great Tsongkhapa viewed his endeavor can be sensed in his naming of this monastery. "Ganden" is the Tibetan name for the paradise of the Buddha of the Future. According to scriptures, the arrival of this Buddha will herald the end of the world's sufferings. This name therefore suggests the salutary wish that Ganden monastery would become a route to the world's salvation. To this day, the abbot or Tripa of Ganden Monastery, rather than the Dalai Lama, leads this predominant sect.

The three main sights of Ganden Monastery are the Serdung, which contains the golden tomb of Tsongkhapa, the Tsokchen Assembly Hall and the Ngam Cho Khang Chapel where Tsongkhapa traditionally taught his students. Its reconstruction began in 1982 as it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Ganden has been re-established on a much larger scale in Karnataka, India by the Tibetan population in exile.