Densatil Monastery

Densatil Monastery is situated on Mt. Drakri Karpo in Sangri county on the North bank of Brahmaputra River. It is a major branch of Kagyu pa monastery, the Phaktru Kagyu of Densa.

Brief

Densatil Monastery is surrounded by wild roses, rhododendrons and other flowering bushes. Its juniper trees are famous.

Its meditation caves are embed with cliff in west. The most sacred relic is a tooth that is claimed to belong to Buddha. Its assembly hall was built into the cliff by nearly a thousand ascetics in the late 12^th century.

It was founded in 1158 by Phagmo Trupa Dorje Gyelpo, and was the one of the most influential in Tibet. Between 1349 AD and 1453 AD, Phagmo Trupa family ruled Tibet from their castle close to Tsetang, and so it acquired a great wealth and religious artifacts that to make it one of the richest monasteries in Tibet. Nowadays there is nothing left except the broken red walls and a newly rebuilt chapels.

The rebuilding of this monastery is processed slowly.

How to get to there

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Starting from Tsetang (Shannan), approximately 7 km to arrive at Tsetang Bridge, where you need to across the bridge onto road S302, turn right for about 21 km to arrive at Jiang village, where it leads the way into the valley entrance. From which, a 3 – 4 hours steep climb to the monastery. This is the old way that has been used ever since the monastery was built.

Nowadays, there is one new jeep-able road has been built, on which you are able to reach the monastery closely, still you will need to walk for about 100 meter to enter the chapels. To get on this jeep-able road, you will continue drive about 3-4 kilometers eastward from Jiang village, where you will see a large vegetable planting base. A dirt road is at its east end, which leads up to Densatil monastery;

The Four Major Sects of Tibetan Buddhism

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