Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sakyapa Order
Main monasteries
Sakya
Subschools
Tsarpa, Ngorpa
Founder
Kongchog Gyelpo
From the 11th century many Tibetan monasteries became centres for the textual study and
translation of Indian Buddhist texts. One of the earliest major figures in this movement
was Kunga Gyaltsen (1182-1251), known as Sakya Pandita (literally 'scholar from
Sakya').
Sakya Pandita's renown as a scholar led to him, and subsequent abbots of Sakya, being
recognised as a manifestation of Jampelyang (Manjushri), the Bodhisattva of Insight.
Sakya Pandita travelled to the Mongolian court in China, with the result that his heir be-
came the spiritual tutor of Kublai Khan. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Sakyapa order
became embroiled in politics and implicated in the Mongol overlordship of Tibet.
Many Sakyapa monasteries contain images of the Sakyapa protector deity Gompo Gur
and photographs of the school's four head lamas: the Sakya Trizin (in exile in the US),
Ngawang Kunga (head of the Sakyapa order), Chogye Trichen Rinpoche (head of the
Tsarpa subschool) and Ludhing Khenpo Rinpoche (head of the Ngorpa subschool). You
can easily recognise Sakyapa monasteries from the three stripes painted on the generally
grey walls.
Chömay
(butter lamps) are kept lit continuously in all monasteries and many private
homes, and are topped up continuously by visiting pilgrims equipped with a tub of butter
and a spoon.
Gelugpa Order
Main monasteries
Ganden
,
Sera
,
Drepung
,
Tashilhunpo
Founder
Tsongkhapa
Also known as
Yellow Hats
It may not have been his intention, but Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), a monk who left his
home in Amdo (Qīnghǎi) at the age of 17 to study in central Tibet, is regarded as the
