Kumbum Monastery (Ta'er Si)

Major Tibetan Buddhist monastery 25 km from Xining, on the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelugpa school.

Kumbum Monastery — Ta'er Si in Chinese, derived from the Tibetan Kumbum Jampaling, meaning 'Monastery of One Hundred Thousand Images of Maitreya' — was founded in 1583 at Lusha'er in Qinghai province, 25 kilometres southwest of Xining. The founding location is significant: Tsongkhapa, the 14th-century reformer who established the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism and who is considered the next most important figure in the tradition after the Buddha and Atisha, was born here in 1357. A stupa was erected over his birthplace; the monastery grew around it over successive centuries, becoming one of the six great Gelugpa monasteries alongside Drepung, Sera, Ganden, Tashilhunpo, and Labrang.

The complex covers a substantial hillside above the town and comprises several dozen buildings in a mixture of Tibetan and Han Chinese architectural styles — the result of patronage by Qing emperors who endowed the monastery as part of their policy of supporting Gelugpa Buddhism as a bridge to Tibetan and Mongolian populations. The current resident monastic population is around 600 monks. The monastery is well-maintained and receives both pilgrims from across the Tibetan world and visitors from mainland Chinese cities.

The monastery is most famous for its yak-butter sculptures — a Tibetan tradition of creating elaborate three-dimensional images from coloured butter, sculpted in refrigerated rooms during the winter months and displayed at major festivals. The sculptures are intricate and ephemeral: crafted at low temperature through the winter, displayed once for a festival, then destroyed. The Great Prayer Festival (Monlam Chenmo) and the 15th-day festivals at other major Tibetan Buddhist dates bring the largest gatherings. Kumbum is critically accessible without the Tibet Autonomous Region permits required for Lhasa and most Tibetan sites — it sits in Qinghai province and is open to independent travellers.