Labrang Monastery

　　　　Located 1 kilometer west of Xiahe County, the Daxia River has formed a basin between Longshan and Fengshan mountains. The Tibetan people call it a treasure basin, and Labrang Monastery sits right on this treasure basin. Together with Tibet’s Drepung Monastery, Sera Monastery, Ganden Monastery, Tashilhunpo Monastery, and Qinghai’s Ta’er Monastery, it is known as one of China’s six great monasteries of the Gelug (Yellow Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

　　　　"Labrang" is a transliteration of the Tibetan word "Lazhang," meaning "the place where the Buddha’s palace resides." The monastery was first built in the 48th year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1709), and features 18 resplendent halls and over ten thousand monk dormitories, standing in close rows with golden tiles and red walls, presenting an extraordinary grandeur. Among them, the Six Great Colleges (Zachang) are the most renowned. In Tibetan, "Zachang" means "college."

　　　　 The Six Great Colleges refer to six major Buddhist institutes: the Wenshu College for exoteric Buddhism studies, the Shang College and Xia College of Jupu (Esoteric Buddhism), the Shiwu College for astronomy, the Medicine College for medical studies, and the Xijinjiao College for legal studies. Among these, the Wenshu College is the center of the entire monastery, consisting of a front hall, main hall, and rear hall. The front hall houses a statue of King Songtsen Gampo of Tibet; the main hall bears a plaque inscribed with “Huizhao Temple,” bestowed by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. The main hall has 11 bays, is 100 meters wide and 75 meters deep, with 140 pillars thick enough to be embraced by two people, and can accommodate 4,000 monks chanting scriptures simultaneously.

　　　　The hall is adorned with colorful prayer flags, over a hundred butter lamps burning, and incense smoke lingering in the air, creating an atmosphere akin to a Buddhist paradise. The monastery also has two preaching platforms, a scripture depository, and a printing house, housing tens of thousands of cultural relics and more than 60,000 volumes of Tibetan scriptures. There are also 18 "Lakang" (Buddhist temples) in Labrang Monastery. A "Lakang" is a gathering place where monks from all colleges come together to chant scriptures. Among them, the Shouxixi Temple is the largest, with six stories and a height of over 20 meters. The hall enshrines a approximately 15-meter-tall statue of Sakyamuni Buddha. The roof is adorned with coiled golden dragons, and silver lions stand guard by the walls, making its exterior extremely majestic. It is no exaggeration to say that Labrang Monastery is a higher learning institution of Tibetan Buddhism.