Ganden Monastery

Ganden Monastery (also Gaden or Gandain) or Ganden Namgyeling is one of the "great three" Gelug university monasteries of Tibet, China. It is in Dagzê County, Lhasa. The other two are Sera Monastery and Drepung Monastery. Ganden Monastery was founded in 1409 by Je Tsongkhapa Lozang-dragpa, founder of the Gelug order. The monastery was destroyed after 1959, but has since been partially rebuilt. Another monastery with the same name and tradition was established in Southern India in 1966 by Tibetan exiles.

Location

Ganden is 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Lhasa. The monastery lies in a hilly natural amphitheater. from the kora route around the monastery there are dramatic views over the valleys that surround it. Ganden Monastery is at the top of Wangbur Mountain, Dagzê County at an altitude of 4,300m. Its full name is Ganden Namgyal Ling (dga' ldan rmam rgyal gling). Ganden means "joyful" and is the Tibetan name for Tuṣita, the heaven where the bodhisattva Maitreya is said to reside. Namgyal Ling means "victorious temple".