Langmusi Kirti Monastery Sichuan Side 郎木寺四川侧格尔底寺

About Langmusi Kirti Monastery Sichuan Side

A stream called the Bailong or White Dragon River, less than 2 metres wide, runs through the settlement; its north bank lies in Gansu, its south bank in Ruo'ergai County, and the Gansu monastery and Sichuan's Gerdi Temple face each other across it, a division that also brings together Tibetan and Hui communities, each practising their own faith at a lama temple or a mosque on their own bank. According to a feature in China Tibet magazine, Gerdi Temple traces to 1413, when the first in a line of Living Buddhas built a mountain temple at the mouth of Namo Grand Canyon, at the head of a purely pastoral valley ringed by named peaks; the temple grew over several generations into the monastery known today, with what the article names as three temples at the site in total: Gerdi Temple itself (whose full name it gives as Anduo Dacang Namo Temple), the separate Saichi Temple across the stream in Gansu, and the Langmusi mosque. Gerdi Temple's own halls, by the same account, are the Wensi Yuan, which houses the main Great Hero hall, a Medical College, a Kalachakra hall and a Dharma Protector hall, with wood-tiled monk quarters rising in tiers up the mountainside; beside the main hall stands a mummified-relic stupa holding the preserved body of a Living Buddha, described as the longest- and best-preserved such body in the Tibetan region, its skin still supple after more than 200 years.

The county government's own page for the site describes its temple halls and monk quarters as built up the mountainside in tiers, with dharma wheels and golden deer on the roof ridges catching the sunlight, and records that tourists have called the place a 'Penglai fairyland', 'Little Switzerland of the East', 'Shambhala's little Jiangnan' and a 'natural Tibetan folk museum'; in 2005 the site was selected by China Central Television for its 'Charming China, Charming Towns' programme. The busiest time at Langmusi is the first lunar month, when the Monlam great prayer assembly is held, with cham dances, Tibetan opera and the unfurling of a large thangka as its main events.

What to look for

• The mummified-relic stupa beside Gerdi Temple's main hall, holding a Living Buddha's preserved body, described as the longest- and best-preserved in the Tibetan region.
• The temple's four halls: the Wensi Yuan and main Great Hero hall, the Medical College, the Kalachakra hall and the Dharma Protector hall.
• The narrow stream dividing Sichuan's Gerdi Temple from the separate monastery on the Gansu bank.
• The Monlam great prayer assembly in the first lunar month, with its cham dances, Tibetan opera and thangka unfurling.

Location & getting there

Getting to Langmusi Kirti Monastery Sichuan Side

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

• Search for 郎木寺四川侧格尔底寺 with 阿坝藏族羌族自治州 and 若尔盖县.