Labrang Monastery 拉卜楞寺

About Labrang Monastery

Its halls and colleges form a substantial settlement of white walls, courts and gilded roofs. The prayer-wheel route shows the monastery’s daily devotional rhythm, while the main assembly spaces and the Gongtang chorten reveal different architectural scales. A visit is best organised around the authorised hall tour and the public perimeter, leaving teaching and ritual areas to their own purposes.

Labrang Monastery was founded in 1709, during the Kangxi era (康熙), by the first Jiamuyang (嘉木样) Living Buddha, Awang Songzhe (阿旺宋哲); in 1714 its Labrang (拉章), the residence of the monastery's supreme reincarnate lama, was established, giving the monastery its name. It was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) in 1982. In July 2021 the monastery completed its first large-scale restoration in more than 300 years, at a cost of over 400 million yuan; fourteen halls, including the Maitreya Hall (弥勒佛殿), finished restoration.

The monastery has six great assembly halls and numerous Buddhist halls, including the Tsongkhapa Hall (宗喀巴佛殿) and the Thousand-Hand Thousand-Eye Guanyin Hall (千手千眼观音殿), plus a scripture repository, a sutra-printing house and a bronze pagoda. Its collection of Tibetan-language texts, built up since the second Jiamuyang, is described as the most extensive held by any Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the country. In 1782 it founded a Tibetan medical college, Mankang (曼康), which still produces remedies listed in the national pharmacopoeia.

Labrang is one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug school (格鲁派) and the largest monastery in the Tibetan areas of southern Gansu; it is said to have had as many as 108 subordinate monasteries and historically served as the religious and political center of the Gannan (甘南) region.

What to look for

• The prayer-wheel circuit around the monastery precinct.
• The major assembly halls and the gilded Gongtang chorten.

Location & getting there

Getting to Labrang Monastery

Travel to Labrang Town in Xiahe County and continue toward the monastery at the western end of the main settlement beside the Daxia River. Confirm the meeting point for any interior tour separately from access to the public perimeter.