Drepung Monastery
The monestary was established in 1416 by Tsong Khapa's
disciple Jamyang Qoigyi, who was versed in both Esoteric
and Exotoric Buddhism and became the first Kampo there.
With the support of plutocrats, it developed as the
richest monastery of Gelugpa and became the mother
temple of Dalai Lamas. In 1546, the third Dalai was
welcomed as the first Living Buddha into the monastery.
At the invitation of Mongolia's king, he went to Qinghai
Province to preach. He was dignified with the title 'the
third Dalai Lama' the first and second Dalai were
entitled, too. It is the very place that the second,
third, and the fourth Dalai Lama held the Sitting-in-Bed
Ceremony, as well as the residence of the fifth Dalai
before his nomination by the government of the Qing
Dynasty (1644 - 1911).
The ground of the monastery is organized on the caves
and temples for Jamyang Qoigyi, together with two
magnificent white pagodas. The buildings of the
monastery are centered on these pagodas, The major
buildings are Ganden Potrang, Coqen Hall, the four
Zhacangs (or Tantric colleges), and Kamcuns.
The Ganden Potrang, in the southwest corner of the
monastery, was built under the supervision of the second
Dalai Lama Gendun Gyaco around the year of 1530. It
became the residence of the second, third, fourth, and
the fifth Dalai Lamas. After the fifth Dalai Lama moved
to the Potala Palace, it was served as the meeting place
for the local regime for both politics and religion.
Sera Monastery
Sera, one of the three largest monasteries of Gelugpa,
sits at the foothills of Tatipu. It is as prestigious as
Drepung and Ganden, which both have longer histories.
Sera, in Tibetan, means "Wild Rose Garden" since opulent
wild rose woods once grew around it. A legend says that
Tsong Khapa and his two disciples traveled in the area,
spreading their religion. One day, they heard a horse
whinnying underground when they were taking a walk in
the rose woods. They dug up a statue of Hynagriva (a
horse-headed demon-god) and Tsong Khapa began
construction of a monastery to enshrine Hynagriva.
However, the truth is that in 1414, Jamchen Chojey (or
Sakya Yeshe), one of Tsong Khapa's disciples, visited
Emperor Chengzu as Tsong Khapa's emissary. The Emperor
Chengzu granted him a title of Dharma King of Great
Mercy, sutras, and a set of sandalwood Arhats. In order
to preserve them, Tsong Khapa instructed Jamchen Chojey
to build a monastery to house the treasures. The Sera
monastery was completed in 1419.
Sera is designed around a Main Assembly Hall, or
Tshomchen in Tibetan, which is the grandest hall of
Sera, occupying a floor space of 1,000 square meters.
The four-storied hall has four chapels in which Arhats,
Manjushri, Tsong Khapa, and Chenrezi are enshrined.
Later, a huge Maitreya was enshrined in the hall during
the reign of the Seventh Dalai Lama. The valuable
Buddhist sutras that Jamchen Chojey brought back from
Beijing are kept in a sutra pigeonhole adjacent to the
hall.
Samye Monastery
Situated in Dranang, Samye Monastery was completed in
779 under the patron of Trisong Detsen. At the time of
Samye's construction, Buddhism had been transmitted into
Tibet, but there were no formal Buddhist priests or
rituals. Trisong Detsen decided to invite Santarakshita
and Padmasambhava, both Buddhist figureheads in India,
to promote Buddhism in Tibet and participate in the
construction of a monastery. Padmasambhava chose the
construction site while the design was done by
Santarakshita. After the construction was completed,
Buddhism became the official religion in Tibet. Learned
monks from inland China and India were invited to Tibet
to translate Buddhist sutras into Tibetan. Trisong
Detsen selected seven nobles to be the first monks in
Tibet. Samye became the first formal monastery that
established "triratna", referring to the Buddha, the
Dharma and the Sangha, or Buddhist priesthood.
Samye means "unimaginable" in Tibetan. It was said that
when Tritsong Detsen asked for suggestions about the
construction of the monastery, Padmasambhava, exerting
his magic power, showed the king an image of a monastery
in his palm. That is the origin of the name.
The monastery combines the styles of China, Tibet and
India, and the layout was designed to represent the
ideal universe described in Buddhist scriptures. "Utse",
the Great Hall symbolizing "Sumeru" in perfect Buddhist
universe, is the largest structure in the monastery. The
Sun and Moon chapels encircle the large hall, and four "stupas"
of different styles stand at each corner of the room.
These "stupas" are colored in red, white, black and
green to represent the four Heavenly Kings. Four larger
halls and eight smaller ones, evenly distributed around
"Utse," represent the oceans in that universe. The
monastery is secluded from the outside world by a
circular wall with thousands of Buddha statues sitting
on it. This wall represents a mountain near the border
of the universe.
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