Gedan Monastery

Gedan Monastery

Gedan Monastery is a cultural tourism attraction.

Gedan Monastery is located in the northwest corner of Aba County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. With a history of over 120 years, it is the largest Tibetan Buddhist Gelug monastery in Aba County. Currently covering an area of 18,000 square meters, it houses more than 1,000 monks and 14 living Buddhas. The monastery was built in the 9th year of the Tongzhi reign (1870), and its predecessor was Donggou Monastery. During the Long March of the Red Army, it served as the headquarters of the Red Army leadership.

　The main prayer hall of Gedan Monastery now has 120 pillars and can accommodate thousands of monks and worshippers for chanting and prayer. It is one of the largest prayer halls in the Tibetan region.

1. The front hall of the main prayer hall is decorated with exquisite and luxurious Tibetan carvings, featuring the likes of Jia (the god of strength), Xue Xiangxiang (a beautiful singing bird with a human body and bird feet), Sanggei Gangji (an eight-legged lion, a descendant of a lion-bird that was once enemies but later became friends, symbolizing peace), and Qiong (a bird from the ancient seas that no longer exists). The murals of the Four Heavenly Kings depict Dhritarashtra (Guardian of the East), Virudhaka (Guardian of the South), Virupaksha (Guardian of the West), and Vaishravana (Guardian of the North)—the supreme kings who protect the four cardinal directions of the sacred land. The Six Realms of Reincarnation diagram shows, at its innermost layer, a pig, a dove, and a snake, representing the three poisons of ignorance, desire, and hatred. The second layer, moving clockwise, includes the Realm of Heaven, the Human Realm, the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, the Hell Realm, the Animal Realm, and the Asura Realm. Hell is depicted at the bottom layer, where those who do not accumulate good deeds will face various tortures.

2. The largest Buddha statue in the main prayer hall is a clay sculpture of Maitreya Buddha (also known as the Future Buddha), standing about four stories tall or approximately 20 meters high. Inside the statue are preserved over a thousand volumes of the Tibetan Buddhist canon. The hall also houses tens of thousands of famous Tibetan scriptures such as the Kangyur and Tengyur, as well as dozens of religious stupas and precious pagodas. The walls of the main prayer hall are adorned with numerous valuable thangkas, embroidered tapestries, painted artworks, and mineral-pigment paintings.

3. On the left wall inside the main entrance of the main prayer hall, the first to sixth thangkas represent a thousand images of Shakyamuni Buddha, known in Tibetan as "Dongba." The seventh thangka features Shakyamuni in the center, surrounded by statues of Tsongkhapa, Guanyin, and Tara. On the right wall inside the main entrance, the first thangka is of Shakyamuni Buddha, surrounded by the 18 Arhats. The second thangka is of Shakyamuni Buddha, the third and fourth are of the Amitayus Buddha (Buddha of Infinite Life), the fifth is of the Vajra Warrior, the sixth is of the Medicine Buddha, and the seventh is of the Immovable Buddha (Akshobhya).