Qualla: Drigung Monastery https://qualla.com/drigung-monastery en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/e/drigung-monastery-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Drigung Monastery https://qualla.com/drigung-monastery Drigung Monastery: Introduction https://qualla.com/drigung-monastery/ Photo credit Antoine Taveneaux, CC BY-SA 3.0. Legend says a female yak chose this place. She wandered up the south slope of a long mountain ridge northeast of Lhasa, lay down, and refused to move. Jigten Sumgon, the monk following her, took it as a sign and founded his monastery on the spot in 1179. The horns of that yak are still preserved inside Drigung Thil, eight and a half centuries later. Whether or not you believe the story, the location speaks for itself: 4,465 meters above sea level, 180 meters above the Shorong valley floor, with a panoramic view that stretches across central Tibet in every direction. The monastery clings to the ridge as if it grew there, its more than fifty buildings scattered along slopes so steep that some can only be reached by wooden ladders.

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Image: Antoine Taveneaux | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/e/drigung-monastery-wp/wj3e-drigung-monastery-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Drigung Monastery: A Lineage Born in the Caves https://qualla.com/drigung-monastery/ Photo credit Antoine Taveneaux, CC BY-SA 3.0. Drigung Thil did not begin as a grand institution. It grew beside a hermitage erected in 1167 by Minyak Gomring, an illiterate ascetic who had studied under Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo. When Jigten Sumgon established his monastery twelve years later, he was founding the seat of the...

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Image: Antoine Taveneaux | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/e/drigung-monastery-wp/wj3e-drigung-monastery-a-lineage-born-in-the-caves.mp3 0:06 2 full Drigung Monastery: Mongol Fire and Slow Rebuilding https://qualla.com/drigung-monastery/ Photo credit Antoine Taveneaux, CC BY-SA 3.0. The monastery's early growth was remarkable. Within decades of Jigten Sumgon's death in 1217, Drigung Thil rivaled the powerful Sakya sect in both political and religious influence. That rivalry proved dangerous. In 1240, Mongol armies under Dorta Nagpo sacked nearby monasteries ...

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]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/e/drigung-monastery-wp/wj3e-drigung-monastery-mongol-fire-and-slow-rebuilding.mp3 0:06 3 full Drigung Monastery: Destruction and What Survived https://qualla.com/drigung-monastery/ Photo credit Antoine Taveneaux, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1959, four hundred monks lived at Drigung Thil, sixty people sat in meditation retreats, and eight Incarnate Lamas presided over the community. Then came the Cultural Revolution. Red Guards looted nearly everything: statues, stupas, thangkas, manuscripts. The monks managed to ...

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]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/e/drigung-monastery-wp/wj3e-drigung-monastery-destruction-and-what-survived.mp3 0:06 4 full Drigung Monastery: The Ridge Between Earth and Sky https://qualla.com/drigung-monastery/ Photo credit Antoine Taveneaux, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Tsuglakhang, the main shrine hall, stands on a rampart of solid stone twenty meters high, its facade fronted by a terrace where lessons were once given in the open air. Inside, a central statue of Jigten Sumgon made of gold and copper and filled with relics sits beside a figu...

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]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/e/drigung-monastery-wp/wj3e-drigung-monastery-the-ridge-between-earth-and-sky.mp3 0:06 5 full