Qualla: Ganden Monastery https://qualla.com/ganden-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/3/1/ganden-monastery-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ganden Monastery https://qualla.com/ganden-monastery Ganden Monastery: Introduction https://qualla.com/ganden-monastery/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. When the Red Guards ordered Ganden Monastery dynamited during the Cultural Revolution, a monk named Bomi Rinpoche was forced to carry the mummified body of Je Tsongkhapa to the fire. Tsongkhapa had founded Ganden in 1409 and died there in 1419; his preserved remains had been entombed in a silver and gold reliquary for over five centuries. As the body burned, Bomi Rinpoche saved the skull and a handful of ashes. Those fragments became the seed around which Ganden has been rebuilt, piece by piece, since the 1980s. The monastery's name means "joyful" -- it is the Tibetan word for Tushita, the heaven where the future Buddha Maitreya awaits.

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/1/ganden-monastery-wp/wj31-ganden-monastery-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ganden Monastery: The Birthplace of a Tradition https://qualla.com/ganden-monastery/ Photo credit Jan Reurink, CC BY 2.0. Ganden sits at 4,300 meters atop Wangbur Mountain in Dagze County, 40 kilometers northeast of Lhasa. The monastery lies in a natural amphitheater of hills, and the kora pilgrim circuit around it offers dramatic views over the surrounding valleys. Je Tsongkhapa Lozang-dragpa found...

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Image: Jan Reurink | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/1/ganden-monastery-wp/wj31-ganden-monastery-the-birthplace-of-a-tradition.mp3 0:06 2 full Ganden Monastery: Power Behind the Prayer Wheels https://qualla.com/ganden-monastery/ Photo credit Yasunori Koide, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ganden was not merely a place of contemplation. Together with Sera and Drepung monasteries, it formed a triad of institutions that wielded enormous political power in Tibetan society. At its peak, Ganden supported over 5,000 monks, though estimates from the 1890s put the number a...

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Image: Yasunori Koide | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/1/ganden-monastery-wp/wj31-ganden-monastery-power-behind-the-prayer-wheels.mp3 0:06 3 full Ganden Monastery: Destruction and the Bones That Survived https://qualla.com/ganden-monastery/ Photo credit Ondřej Žváček, CC BY 2.5. Ganden was completely destroyed by the People's Liberation Army during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. In 1966, Red Guard artillery shelled what remained, and monks were ordered to dismantle the ruins. Dynamite finished what the shells had started during the Cultural Revolution. The d...

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Image: Ondřej Žváček | CC BY 2.5

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/1/ganden-monastery-wp/wj31-ganden-monastery-destruction-and-the-bones-that-survived.mp3 0:06 4 full Ganden Monastery: Ganden in Exile and Under Watch https://qualla.com/ganden-monastery/ Photo credit Maris Burbergs, CC BY 3.0. In 1966, Tibetan exiles re-established Ganden in Karnataka, India, at a settlement near Mundgod on land donated by the Indian government. By 1999, the settlement housed about 13,000 residents across nine camps with two monasteries and a nunnery. The curriculum remained faithful t...

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Image: Maris Burbergs | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/3/1/ganden-monastery-wp/wj31-ganden-monastery-ganden-in-exile-and-under-watch.mp3 0:06 5 full