Ü - Tibet - page 223

squat toilets (without doors) that are a long hike from the rooms. The unhelpful staff don't
make things any easier. On the plus side, there's a decent restaurant and you are just 20m
from the monastery's eastern gate.
Getting There & Away
Mindroling is 8km south of the Gongkar-Tsetang road, up the Drachi Valley. Foreigners
are not allowed to take the daily monastery bus to or from Tsetang.
Namseling Manor
Perhaps the only building of its type still standing in Tibet, Namseling Manor (Lǎngsèlín
Zhuāngyuán; caretaker 133 9803 5933) is a seven-storey family mansion dating from the
17th century. It's a minor site with just a few murals left but it's worth a scramble around if
you can track down the caretaker. The moat and bridge are a recent addition.
The building is 3km south of the main highway near kilometre marker 161.
Dorje Drak Monastery
Elev 3550m
Along with Mindroling Monastery, Dorje Drak (Duōjízhá Sì) is one of the two most import-
ant Nyingmapa monasteries in Ü. With a remote and romantic location, it is less accessible
than Mindroling and consequently gets few Western visitors. It's currently under expan-
sion.
Dorje Drak was forcibly relocated to its present site in 1632 by the kings in Tsang. A
line of hereditary lamas known as the Rigdzin leads the monastery. The title is named after
the first Rigdzin Godemachen, thought to be a reincarnation of Guru Rinpoche. The fourth
Rigdzin, Pema Trinley, was responsible for expanding the monastery in the early 18th cen-
tury, though his efforts were for naught as the Dzungar Mongols sacked the place in 1717;
Pema Trinley did not survive the onslaught.
The 10th Rigdzin Lama currently resides in Lhasa.
Dorje Drak's main assembly hall has statues of the first and second Rigdzins and the 5th
Dalai Lama, while the inner room features Pema Trinley, the fourth Rigdzin, next to