Drigung monastery

Drigung Monastery is also called “Drigung til Monastery”, it is located in Maizhokunggar County about 130km northeast of Lhasa. It seats on the south slope of the mountain ridge approxiamtely 200 meter above the bottom of the valley with altitude of 4465 meters.

Brief

Its dominate position provides a wide and wonderful view of the whole valley. There are another three monasteries of the Drigung Kagyu sect located in the same region, of which are Yangrigar, Drigung Dzong, and Drigung Tse.

Founded and development

Drigung Monastery was founded in 1179, it’s the main seat of the Drigung Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In its early years the monastery played an important role in both religion and politics.

Historically, this monastery was detroied twice, one was in 1290 AD by Mongol troops under the direction of a rival sect. Then, after it was rebuilt and regained some of its former strength, and also maintain its position as of being a primarily center of Tibetan meditative studies. The other one was after 1959, but has since been partly rebuilt. As of 2015 there were about 250 monks are housed in this monastery

How to get to there

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It is about 130 kilometer northeast from Lhasa city in Maizhokunggar County, the road to this site has been rebuilt, it is now all paved, every morning, there is one bus departure at 07:00 am from the “Yu Tuo Road Intersection” near Jokhang Temple.

The one way bus-ride takes about 3 hours long, with rate: RMB 40 per person, the same bus will return to Lhasa in the afternoon. Be sure to check with driver about the time for return journey

Alternatively, you can hire local vehicle from Lhasa to here, it usually costs RMB 500.00 – 600.00 pne way per trip with one 7 seats minivan

The Four Major Sects of Tibetan Buddhism

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