Langmusi Sertri Monastery Gansu Side 郎木寺甘肃侧赛赤寺

About Langmusi Sertri Monastery Gansu Side

The Luqu county government's portal records that Langmusi is a small township under Luqu county, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu, at the border with Zoigê county in Sichuan, and that the Bailong river runs out of the Namo gorge and divides the town: the north bank, in Gansu, carries Sertri together with a thangka-display terrace, a white stupa and a sky-burial site, while the south bank, in Sichuan, carries the Kirti monastery, next to which stands a mosque. The same page gives the town's Tibetan full name as 德合仓郎木, “fairy in the tiger's den”, and says that Sertri and Kirti are both Gelug monasteries. The county's tourism overview places the town at the junction of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan at an elevation of 3,480 m, notes that Langmusi is both a monastery and a place name, and says the place is known for the self-appearing cave of 德合仓郎木 and for the 德合仓郎木赛赤寺院.

The county portal dates Sertri's founding to between 1564 and 1643 and records that by 1958 it had five colleges — dialectics, tantra, Kalachakra, medicine and woodblock printing — with more than 500 monks and more than 50 halls and stupas, among them the great and small assembly halls and halls of Maitreya, the golden-tiled reliquary, Hayagriva, the protectors, the lord-protector, Padmasambhava and Simhamukha. It records more than 4,000 jewelled images and more than 800 thangkas, including embroidered, appliqué and scroll work, and two sets of the Kangyur and Tengyur written in gold ink together with woodblock-printed editions. On that history and those holdings the page ranks Sertri as the region's next monastery after Kumbum and Labrang. It records that the monastery's stored treasures were destroyed and that it closed until it was rebuilt and reopened in 1980, when the Maitreya hall, the reliquary hall, the Hayagriva hall, the protector hall, the long-life hall, the scripture hall, the Sertri lama's residence and the great white stupa were rebuilt, and it says more than 400 monks now live there.

The same page describes Sertri's New Year festival, held over two days in three parts — displaying the great Buddha, performing cham and burning the torma. On the 13th day, shared with the Kirti monastery, it says some seventy or eighty monks carry a rolled 50 m Maitreya thangka out at 8 am to the display terrace, where a 20 m image is unrolled and an hour of cham follows. On the 14th day the cham is performed in the courtyard of Sertri's great hall, and the page counts thirteen dances in all, among them the Achara, the skeleton dance, the Chega dance, the protector dance, the Xaya dance, the protector goddess, the great vidyaraja dance and the dance of subduing evil, the whole lasting 3 hours 40 minutes and ending with a procession to the white stupa below the monastery. It says the masks are mostly of leather, wood, copper, clay and lacquered cloth, and that the accompaniment uses dharma horns, handle drums, copper bells, cymbals, suona, great drums and conch horns among others.

What to look for

• The great and small assembly halls and the halls of Maitreya, the golden-tiled reliquary, Hayagriva, the protectors, the lord-protector, Padmasambhava and Simhamukha that the county portal lists
• The more than 800 thangkas, including embroidered, appliqué and scroll work, and the two sets of the Kangyur and Tengyur written in gold ink
• The thangka-display terrace on the Gansu bank, where the 20 m Maitreya image is unrolled on the 13th day of the New Year festival
• The white stupa below the monastery, to which the dancers process at the end of the cham
• The cham masks of leather, wood, copper, clay and lacquered cloth, and the dharma horns, handle drums, copper bells, cymbals, suona and conch horns that accompany them

Location & getting there

Getting to Langmusi Sertri Monastery Gansu Side

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 郎木寺甘肃侧赛赤寺 with 甘南藏族自治州 and 碌曲县.