Kumbum Monastery ( Ta'er Temple), Huangzhong, Xining, Qinghai, China 4K
Kumbum Monastery ( Ta'er Temple), Huangzhong County, Xining, Qinghai 4K, Kumbum Monastery AmdoTibet, China Trip
Kumbum Monastery also now called Little Tower Temple is a gompa founded in 1583 in a narrow valley close to the village of Lusar in the historical region of Amdo, nowadays the Qinghai province in the People's Republic of China. Its superior monastery is Drepung Monastery, immediately to the west of Lhasa. It was ranked in importance as second only to Lhasa.
Description
==========
Alexandra David-Néel, the famous Belgian-French explorer who spent more than two years studying and translating Tibetan books at the monastery, said of it:
The configuration of the surrounding mountain ranges arrested the passage of the clouds, and forced them to turn around the rocky summit which supported the gompa forming a sea of white mist, with its waves beating silently against the cells of the monks, wreathing the wooded slopes and creating a thousand fanciful landscapes as they rolled by. Terrible hailstorms would often break over the monastery, due, said the country folk, to the malignity of the demons who sought to disturb the peace of the saintly monks.
We were taken first to the great kitchen where priests were brewing Tibetan tea in great copper cauldrons ten feet in diameter, beautifully chased with the Buddhist symbols. The stoves were the usual mud affairs and the fuel nothing but straw, which younger lamas continually fed to the fire.
Origins: The Tree of Great Merit
Je Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, was born in nearby Tsongkha in 1357. According to one tradition, Tsongkhapa's father took the afterbirth and buried it where the monastery is now and soon a sandalwood tree grew on the spot. Another version has it that the tree grew up where drops of blood from Tsongkhapa's umbilical cord had fallen on the ground. In any case this tree became known as the Tree of Great Merit. The leaves and the bark of this tree were reputed to bear impressions of the Buddha's face and various mystic syllables and its blossoms were said to give off a peculiarly pleasing scent.
The four-storied golden-roofed temple built around the tree where Tsongkhapa is said to have been born is called Golden Tree (Wylie: gser sdong, metaphorically wish-fulfilling tree) and is considered the holiest place at Kumbum.
On the porch of the Golden Temple, pilgrims prostrate themselves one hundred times and the boards are worn into grooves where their feet and hands touch. . . . We were taken into one great temple capable of seating twenty-five hundred priests. The great pillars were covered with brilliantly woven rugs, skins of animals, and the bright pulo cloth of the Tibetans. It was a mass of brilliant, garish colors and to my mind would have been wonderful in a more subdued light.
This is the origin of its Chinese name, Little Tower Temple. Two Catholic missionaries, Évariste Régis Huc and Joseph Gabet who arrived here in the 1840s when the tree was still living were fully prepared to dismiss The Tree of Great Merit as just another fanciful legend.
We were filled with an absolute consternation of astonishment, Huc noted in his famous book Travels in Tartary, at finding that, in point of fact, there were upon each of the leaves well-formed Tibetan characters . . . Our first impression was a suspicion of fraud on the part of the lamas; but after a minute examination of every detail, we could not discover the least deception.
Section of this tree are now preserved in a stupa in the Great Golden Temple.
The Golden Tiled Temple is revered throughout Tibet and Mongolia. It is a small building with a roof of pure gold plate. Inside, it is full of wonderful relics, great banners of silk brocade called katas, wonderful lamps of gold and silver, thousands of small vessels burning butter, a colossal figure of Tsong Kapa, said to be made of gold. All is in semi-darkness which adds to the mystical effect, and the gleam from the butter lamps threw into relief some beautifully wrought temple vessels, or the queer blank face of some saintly Buddha image.
The Wutun monastery / Le monastère Wutun (Tongren - Qinghai - China)
(EN) Tongren County ( in the region previously known as Amdo is the capital and second smallest administrative subdivision by area within Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, China. The county has an area of 3465 square kilometers and a population of ~80,000 (2002), 75% Tibetan. The economy of the county includes agriculture and aluminum mining.
The county has a number of Tibetan Buddhist temples, including the large and significant Longwu Temple of the Gelupa (Yellow Hat) sect. It is known as a center of Tibetan thangka painting. Rebkong arts where named to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.
VALPARD
International Communication Centre for The National University Science Park of Zhejiang University
Wushan Square, Hangzhou Zoo and Gegong Temple are within a 20 minute drive from the International Communication Centre for The National University Science Park of Zhejiang University. Hangzhou city centre is within a 10 minute drive from the hotel.
Less than 10 minutes drive away are some great places of interest such as the Hangzhou Theatre, West Lake and Lingyin Temple, and conveniently there is complimentary private parking available at the International Communication Centre for The National University Science Park of Zhejiang University should you require it. Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH) is a 70 minute drive from the hotel. Zhejiang World Trade Center and Yellow Dragon Stadium are a five minute drive from the hotel.