Qualla: Gongkar Cho Monastery https://qualla.com/gongkar-cho-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/0/w/gongkar-cho-monastery-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Gongkar Cho Monastery https://qualla.com/gongkar-cho-monastery Gongkar Cho Monastery: Introduction https://qualla.com/gongkar-cho-monastery/ Photo credit Anonymous Tibetan artist, Public domain. A leaf of scripture, caught by the wind, landed on a hillside above the Tsangpo River. According to tradition, the 15th-century master Dorje Chang Kunga Namgyal was sitting on his rooftop in Gongkar Dzong, reciting from the Vajradhatu, when the breeze plucked a page from his hands and carried it to a spot on the valley's southern slope. He built a monastery where it fell. Gongkar Cho Monastery has stood on that site since 1464, 75 kilometers from Lhasa, its walls holding some of the most important paintings in Tibetan art -- paintings that survived decades of political upheaval through a stroke of accidental fortune.

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Image: Anonymous Tibetan artist | Public domain

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/0/w/gongkar-cho-monastery-wp/wj0w-gongkar-cho-monastery-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Gongkar Cho Monastery: A Prophecy Fulfilled https://qualla.com/gongkar-cho-monastery/ Photo credit Photo taken by Fanghong, CC BY-SA 3.0. The monastery's origin story actually begins centuries before its founder. Jowo-je Palden Atisha, the Bengali Buddhist teacher who traveled from the Pala Empire to Tibet in the 11th century, reportedly stopped near this hillside during his first visit, prostrated in the direction...

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Image: Photo taken by Fanghong | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/0/w/gongkar-cho-monastery-wp/wj0w-gongkar-cho-monastery-a-prophecy-fulfilled.mp3 0:06 2 full Gongkar Cho Monastery: The Khyenri Breakthrough https://qualla.com/gongkar-cho-monastery/ Photo credit Anonymous Tibetan artist, Public domain. What elevates Gongkar Cho from a significant monastery to an art-historical landmark are its wall paintings. In the 16th century, the artist Jamyang Khyentse Wangchuk, born in 1524, decorated the monastery's interior in what became known as the Khyenri style -- a distinctively Ce...

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Image: Anonymous Tibetan artist | Public domain

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/0/w/gongkar-cho-monastery-wp/wj0w-gongkar-cho-monastery-the-khyenri-breakthrough.mp3 0:06 3 full Gongkar Cho Monastery: Saved by Barley https://qualla.com/gongkar-cho-monastery/ Photo credit Anonymous Tibetan artist, Public domain. When Red Guards swept through Tibet during the Cultural Revolution, they ransacked Gongkar Cho. Murals were defaced with Mao Zedong slogans, and the main hall was converted into a barley silo. It was, paradoxically, the monastery's salvation. Across the Tsangpo valley, the seven ...

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Image: Anonymous Tibetan artist | Public domain

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/0/w/gongkar-cho-monastery-wp/wj0w-gongkar-cho-monastery-saved-by-barley.mp3 0:06 4 full Gongkar Cho Monastery: Thirty Monks and Twenty-Eight Mandalas https://qualla.com/gongkar-cho-monastery/ Photo credit Anonymous Tibetan artist, Public domain. The monastery that once housed 160 monks now has 30. Its monastic college, the Shedra, still holds painting classes in the morning and debating classes in the afternoon. Each year, from the 6th to the 15th day of the first lunar month, the remaining community performs a festival ...

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Image: Anonymous Tibetan artist | Public domain

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/0/w/gongkar-cho-monastery-wp/wj0w-gongkar-cho-monastery-thirty-monks-and-twenty-eight-mandalas.mp3 0:06 5 full