Learn Chinese

The Labuleng Buddhist Monastery is located 1 kilometer away from the west of Xiahe County, Gansu Province.

Once called the Zhaxiqi Buddhist Monastery, the Labuleng Buddhist Monastery is one of the six monasteries of the Gelugs (a branch of Chinese Lamaism). It was once the political, religious and cultural center of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan provinces. The monastery leans against Longshan Mountain on the back, and faces the Daxia River on the south, looking into the distance from which appears Mandala Mountain. First built in the forty-eighth year (1709) of the Kan Xi Period of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Labuleng Buddhist Monastery is Tibetan architecture. It occupies an area of 1,300 mu (1 mu = 1/15 hectare). The building comprises six colleges, sixteen Buddha halls, and eighteen mansions for Living Buddha, two sermon altars and a large living quarter. The rows of buildings form a large architectural complex. The rooms total more than 10 thousands.

The center of the Labuleng Buddhist Monastery is the Wensi College, to which Emperor Qianlong once bestowed a stele that reads the Huijue Temple. The college is a mixture of Tibetan architecture and ancient Chinese palaces, with golden iron tiles, cupreous goats, Buddhist wheels, flags for rites, and precious bottles on the top. The main palace is 100 meters wide, and 75 meters deep, and there are 117 pillars in it. It can accommodate 3,000 people one time. There is no window in the hall, and hundreds of ghee lamps provide the illumination. Pillars in the hall are covered with delicate velour, and many figures of Buddha with fine embroidery patterns are hung between two pillars. Huge drawings of josses who protect Buddhist doctrine and five hundred josses on it are hung on both sides of the hall. The Dajing Hall enshrines sitting statues of Tang Emperor Taizong, Songtsan Gambo and the founder of the monastery Ji Muyang. A showroom in the hall showcases colorful cultural relics and treasures.

Also called Great Jinwa Temple, the Shouxi Temple is the biggest building in the monastery, with six storeys and a height of 20 meters. The top of the Shouxi Temple is a square kiosk with four-cornered eave, golden iron tiles, lions, dragons, precious bottles, ruyi (a Chinese ornamental ware, meaning good luck, or as you wish) and Buddhist wheels. A 10-meter-high golden joss in the hall was made by Nepalese artisans. Written in golden and silver liquid, the Ganzhu Sutra, a peerless rare sutra is also conserved in the Shouxi Temple.

Rising from the ground to the ceiling, rows of bookshelves in the Sutra Storing Building in the monastery are filled with sutras with silk covers. A book named Tripitaka contains more than 200 volumes. The books in Sutra Storing Building total more than 65,000. Furthermore, there are more than 7,000 woodcuts in it. Famous for its rich collection of books, the monastery is influential among Chinese lamaseries. 

(Source: chinaculture.org)