Sanga Monastery is a small

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Arunachal Prades ...

monastery located in the town of Dagzê in Dagzê County, Lhasa, Tibet.

Location

Sanga Monastery is located in the center of the old city of Dagzê. The temple grounds cover about , and the building covers . The

Lhasa River The Lhasa River, also called Kyi Chu (, ), is a northern tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in the south of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The Yarlung Tsangpo is the upper section of the Brahmaputra River. The Lhasa River is subject t ...

can be seen from the rear of the monastery. Diagonally above the monastery on the hillside are the ruins of a hilltop fort. This is the ruin of Dagtse Dzong, or Dechen Dzong. ''Dzong'' means "fort".

History

The monastery was built by

Je Tsongkhapa Tsongkhapa ( Tibetan: ཙོང་ཁ་པ་, '','' meaning: "the man from Tsongkha" or "the Man from Onion Valley", c. 1357–1419) was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the format ...

in 1419. It is part of the

Gelug file:DalaiLama0054 tiny.jpg, 240px, 14th Dalai Lama, The 14th Dalai Lama (center), the most influential figure of the contemporary Gelug tradition, at the 2003 Kalachakra ceremony, Bodh Gaya, Bodhgaya (India) The Gelug (, also Geluk; 'virtuous' ...

sect, and is under the jurisdiction of Ganden Monastery. At its height there were one hundred monks in residence. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

the temple lost many artifacts, and buildings were destroyed. In November 1986 the monastery was re-opened after repairs. In 2012 there were over thirty monks in residence. That year a bathhouse was installed for the first time. The monastery has a greenhouse. File:Sanga Monastery roof - Dhvarja.jpg, Roof of Sanga Monastery File:Dhvaja, roof of Sanga monastery.jpg, ''

Dhvaja Dhvaja (; ) is the Sanskrit term for a banner or a flag. Flags are featured in the iconography, mythology, and architecture of Indian religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. They are one of the ashtamangala, the eight auspicious embl ...

'' (Victory banner), Roof of Sanga Monastery File:Lobsang Gyatso.jpg, Statue of the

5th Dalai Lama The 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (; ; 1617–1682) was recognized as the 5th Dalai Lama, and he became the first Dalai Lama to hold both Tibet's political and spiritual leadership roles. He is often referred to simply as the Great Fif ...

, Lobsang Gyatso

References

Sources

* * * * {{Buddhist monasteries in Tibet Buddhist monasteries in Lhasa (prefecture-level city) Buddhist temples in Tibet Gelug monasteries Religion in Lhasa Dagzê County