Tashilunpo Monlam (Prayer Festival) - March (Annually)
Overview
Date: 01/03/2010 - 31/03/2020
Location: Tibet
3 of Norbu Lingka Road, Lhasa, Tibet, ChinaContact Information
Website: http://tibetnews.com/bulletin/99Issue6/page24.html
E-mail: ttour@public.ls.xz.cn
Contact Name: China Tibet Tourism Bureau
Phone: +86 891 683 4315
Description
Different pictures of Buddha, hand-embroidered on silk, are "unfolded" during this annual Buddhist festival. The monks of Tashilunpo Monastery chant scriptures and pray for rain.
The monastery was created by the first-ever Dalai Lama, Gendu Zuma, some 500 years ago (the current Dalai Lama is his 14th reincarnation). Later it came to be the seat of the Panchen Lama line, the second highest spiritual and temporal leader in Tibet.
The tenth Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, had a harder time than his predecessors. While the official tourist line is as rosy as ever, the Chinese authorities have actually reduced this monastery, like many others, to a shadow of its formerly vibrant self and persisted in playing the Panchen Lama against the Dalai Lama. Tashilunpo was once a monastery-city, home to 4700 monks and a great learning centre. The handful of monks there today are withdrawn and guarded - there have been protests in the past with terrible recriminations.
How vibrant this festival will be is debatable, but Tashilunpo has retained a wealth of treasures, such as the 26-metre gold, copper and brass image of Maitreya (the Future Buddha) encrusted with jewels. The 3km prayer circuit is lined with prayer wheels and lovely views. A lot of money has been spent on this monastery, but for whom? It seems that to know what the situation is in Tibet, you will just have to go there yourself.
Photo Gallery
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