Tsurphu Gompa

China / Xizang / Lasa /
 buddhist temple, buddhist monastery, gompa
REBUILDING OF TSURPHU MONASTERY
Throughout Tibet and China, many monasteries were destroyed during 1959 and the Cultural Revolution. Tsurphu was no exception, suffering very heavily. This beautiful seat was completely destroyed and was left in total ruin in 1966. No inhabitants were able to remain there; after the destruction you could see from a distance only the the remnants of a mostly collapsed and ruined wall.

In early 1980, when the communist Chinese government opened the Tibet-Nepal border for older Tibetans to visit family and relatives, His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa instructed Venerable Drupon Dechen Rinpoche to go back to Tibet to reconstruct the original seat, Tsurphu Monastery. Reconstruction of Tsurphu was extremely difficult because Tibetan people were very poor and any support they could provide was very limited. However, through the tireless effort of Drupon Dechen Rinpoche and the devotion and dedication of the Tibetan people, many aspects this large complex was rebuilt. After many years of hard work and dedication they completed the partial rebuilding of the main shrine and some of the other parts of the development
<a href="www.kagyuoffice.org/mainseats.tsurphu.html" rel="nofollow">www.kagyuoffice.org/mainseats.tsurphu.html</a>
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsurphu_Monastery
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   29°43'36"N   90°34'31"E

Comments

  • Not that Karmapa lives there now. He left for India in 1999 rather than accept restrictions on His religious education.
  • Yes Dirk, you are right. He is on his first visit to a foreign country now in the US after finally getting the ok from Indian government. I should also mention the situation of finding the reincarnation of the previous Karmapa, which led to two Karmapa-reincarnations.
This article was last modified 11 years ago