Tibet's Tashihunpo Monastery

As it is known, temples can reflect religion, culture and art of different period people, Shaped the civilization for various districts. In today’s Tibet, there are still a lot of old and primitive temples existing, such as Potala Palace, Jokhang temple, Sera Monastery, Samye monastery and so on. 

 

Today I’ll show you an amazing temple which played an important role in the history of Tibet. That is Tashihunpo Temple-the center of religious and political movement of Panchen Lamas. Generally speaking, Tibet has two systems of ruling. One is Dalai, the other is Panchen. As Tibet is a region that the ruler must be both political leader and religious leader, the top ruler of Dalai system called Dalai Lama while Panchen system called Penchen Lama. Dalai Lama rules east and south district of Tibet such as Lasha, Nyingchi. Meanwhile, Penchen Lama rules north and west district of Tibet such as Shigatse and Ngari. Tashihunpo Temples is highest status temples of the ruler Penchen and also the palace of Penchen Lama.

 

Tashilhunpo monastery covers an area of 150,000 square meters, was originated in 1447 A.D. The style of architecture is symmetry and harmony. Built along the magnificent mountain, the temple looks especially spectacular .It is the largest temple of Shigatse in Tibet as the palace of Penchen Lama. The temple has 57 halls and more than 3,600 rooms. 

 

But Tashihunpo Temple is not only just a political temple. It is also a big treasury. Among all the halls and rooms of Tashihunpo monastery, one majestical hall impresses people particularly, that is the hall of Byams-pa Buddha. The hall has five layers with 30 meters high and two corridors, occupies 620 square meters. It is built with the whole stone assembled, which combines very closely, looks the hall more solemn and grandeur. There is one big Buddha statue in the hall. You will certainly shocked by the Buddha for its resplendent. 

 

This Buddha statue is totally 26.2 meters high. His shoulder is 11.5 meters wide, foot length 4.2 meters, hands length 3.2 meters long, the ear 2.8 meters long. Made by the bronze, the huge status is the largest bronze status of the world. But what it really surprise people is that the Buddha was spent 4 years to finish by more than 110 artisans. The Buddha used up 335 kilo gold, 115,000 kilo brass to make. Only the brow of the Buddha inlaid with countless jewelries. It is said that there are more than 1,400 diamonds, pearls, corals, ambers, other precious stones just in the brow part of the status, not to mention other part of the statue.

 

Tashilhunpo monastery of cultural relics has numerous treasuries. Such as the golden spirit tower, Thangkas, cherish Buddhist scriptures, all kinds of valuable jewelries more than you can image. It’s really a big treasury to the whole world.

 

When you are wandering in Tashihunpo Temple, you will sure be moving by so many treasuries in this temple. How a temple can be decorated so amazing. At last, you find the truth is the strength of people’s belief.