Tashilhunpo Monastery

The seat of the Panchen Lama in Shigatse, 280 km west of Lhasa. The largest functioning Gelugpa monastery in Tibet today.

Tashilhunpo Monastery was founded in 1447 by Gendun Drup, who was posthumously recognised as the 1st Dalai Lama. It sits at the foot of Dolma Ri hill in Shigatse, 280 kilometres west of Lhasa — the second city of Tibet and the traditional capital of Tsang province. From the 17th century onward, Tashilhunpo became the seat of the Panchen Lama, the second-most important figure in the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. The relationship between the Panchen and Dalai Lamas — each traditionally involved in recognising the other's reincarnation — has made Tashilhunpo a site of political as well as religious significance, particularly in the contested circumstances of the most recent Panchen Lama lineage.

The monastery complex is large and well-preserved, having survived the Cultural Revolution period with less destruction than many Tibetan religious sites. The buildings step up the hillside in a cluster of whitewashed walls, dark-red window frames, and gilded roof ornaments. The main attraction for visitors is the Chapel of Maitreya (Jamkhang Chenmo), which houses a 26-metre gilded Maitreya statue — the largest of its kind in Tibet — completed in 1914. The Maitreya figure faces north toward Lhasa, in keeping with the directional symbolism of the future-facing Buddha. The monastery complex also contains the Tomb Stupa of the Panchen Lamas, a series of chorten in decreasing size housed within dedicated chapels.

The monastery currently houses several hundred monks and functions as an active religious institution. Visitors arrive as part of tour-group itineraries from Lhasa that typically also include Gyantse Kumbum and continue to Shigatse. The annual Thangka Festival in August, when a giant silk thangka painting is unfurled down the hillside, is the most significant ceremonial event of the monastery's calendar.