Dzogchen Monastery

Dzogchen Monastery | 竹庆寺 is one of the six great monasteries of the Nyingma Pa of Tibetan Buddhism. It is located in the east Derge of Kanze (Garze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Kham, Present, West Sichuan Province). Approximately 52 kilometers west from Manigango which is a wild-west small town in the northwest region of Kham.

It was founded by Pema Rigdzin, 1^st Dzogchen Rinpoche in 1675 and is thought to be the largest Nyingma monastery. It became renowned for its Shri Singha Shedra established by Gyalsé Shenpen Thayé, and is also known as the principle repository of the Konchok Chidu cycle of the Jangt. It was one of the most famous centers of sacred ritual dance, commonly known as “Lama Dance” OR “Monk Mask Dance”.

Address

Gen Qing village, Dzogchen (Zhu Qing) Xiang

How to get to there

The monastery is by the road that connects Manigango and Sershul county. It is about 50 km west from Manigango, the only pass between this two sites is the 4,500 meters Hai-Zi La pass, it takes about 2.5 hours to cover this distance;

Sershul is about 170 northwest of Dzogchen, which may take 4 hours to cover this distance, and Sershul county is about another 3.5 hours drive to Yushu airport, which has direct flight to major cities of China, such as Beijing, Xining….

Alternative, Garze Gesar airport will be the nearest airport to this site when it is completed in the end of 2018

There is no bus to reach Dzogchen monastery, the possible way that you can use are:

• To take the bus from Garze(Kanze) to Sershul, get off the bus at Geng Da village | 更达村, from which you will need to walk for about 1 kilometers to reach the assembly hall
• The simpler way is to rent one local minibus from Manigango to Dzogchen , which may cost RMB 600.00 – 700.00 for a round trip rental