Kumbum Monastery(Bai Ju Si Temple)

The Kumbum Monastery (白居寺, Bai Ju Si, in Chinese) is on a highland 3,900 meters above sea level, which located in northeast Gyangze County (江孜县) of Shigatse (日喀则) in Tibet and approximately 230 kilometers to the south of Lhasa. Built 1418 in the flourishing age of Tibetan Buddhism after Master Tsongkhaba had held the grand Buddhist prayer ceremony in Lhasa 1408. Kumbum is also known as "Ban'kuode'qing" means "auspicious wheels" in Tibetan.

 

 

It is essential and interesting to know that there are three different religious sects residing in the monastery now. They are getting along very well with one another. However, in ancient times, the Kumbum Monastery had once been a little bit unrest that originally it belonged to the Skyha（萨迦） Sect, not so long later the Gadang（噶当） and Gulug (Yellow Hat, 格鲁, 黄教) Sects came in. They had strong arguments in terms of Buddhist ideas with each other, but at last they became relatively humble and established better relations. Therefore, the monastery has colleted the inheriting characteristics of the three religious sects and the architectural styles were influenced by them collectively.

The Buddha Pagoda（菩提塔） is the symbol of the Kumbum Monastery. It is also called "The Hundred-thousand-Buddha Pagoda"（十万佛塔） and the monastery is made famous by this. The pagoda is large that it consists of nearly a hundred Buddhist worshipping chambers, which each of them collects Buddhist statues, mural paintings and religious related items counted about 100,000, so it got its nickname.

 There are four main elements in the monastery – the Main Temple, the Multiple Doors Auspicious Pagoda, the Dratsang (Buddhist school) and the outer walls.

 

The Kumbum Monastery's clearly represents the typical architecture styles in Tibetan Buddhist establishments between the 13th and 15th centuries. It is the best preserved grand Buddhist compound with tremendous historical value in the Tibetan Plateau.

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