Baiyu Monastery 白玉寺

About Baiyu Monastery

Baiyu Monastery (白玉寺), known in English as Palyul Monastery, is a Nyingma (宁玛派) monastery of Tibetan Buddhism on the north slope of the county town of Baiyu County (白玉县), in the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (甘孜藏族自治州), Sichuan. It counts among the six mother monasteries of the Nyingma school.

The monastery sits close to the Jinsha River (金沙江) at an average altitude of 3,030 m, ringed by mountains, and its halls and monks' houses cover a whole hill above the town. China Tibet Online names it one of the three main Nyingma monasteries in Kham. The Nyingma, or 'old' school, is the earliest school of Tibetan Buddhism and follows scriptures translated in the Tubo (吐蕃) period of the 7th to 9th centuries.

Chinese Wikipedia traces the site to 890, when a master from central Tibet came to Baiyu to practise, making it the first Nyingma practice site in Kham; his retreat cave and stupa remain. A protector hall later stood on the rock, and in 1675 the king of Derge (德格) enlarged it into a monastery, with Rigzin Kunzang Sherab (仁珍昆桑谢拉) as its throne holder. Later generations of his disciples founded branch monasteries across Kham, central Tibet and Amdo, and at its height the monastery housed 3,000 monks. It was razed in the Cultural Revolution. From the early 1980s the abbot Tusong (图松) rebuilt it with provincial and prefectural approval and the backing of the 11th throne holder, Penor Rinpoche (贝诺法王), then living in India. It became a Sichuan provincial cultural relic protection unit in 2019.

Rebuilt halls include the assembly hall, Buddha halls, a Buddhist college, a retreat centre completed in 1990 for three-year, three-month retreats, and, from the early 2000s, a mandala of Guru Rinpoche's pure land and eight stupas. The college opened in 1994 and runs a nine-year course leading to the khenpo degree. In the Karma printing house (嘎玛印经院), set up in the 1980s, carvers, many from Jomda (江达县) in Chamdo (昌都), cut woodblocks of the Kama, the Nyingma canon of 112 volumes that the monastery spent over 30 years recovering. The Kama assembly runs from the 5th to the 16th day of the fourth Tibetan month, and every major assembly includes vajra dances.

What to look for

• The main hillside complex of halls and monks' houses above the Baiyu county town
• The Karma printing house (嘎玛印经院), where woodblocks of the Nyingma Kama canon are carved and printed
• The mandala of Guru Rinpoche's pure land and the eight stupas built in the early 2000s
• The retreat centre of 1990, used for three-year, three-month retreats
• Vajra dances at the major assemblies, including the Kama assembly in the fourth Tibetan month

Location & getting there

Getting to Baiyu Monastery

• Search for 白玉寺 with 甘孜藏族自治州 and 白玉县.