| Kandze Monastery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Tibetan Buddhism |
| Sect | Gelugpa |
| Location | |
| Location | Garzê Town,Garzê County,Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Kham region),Sichuan Province,China |
  Garzê County Kandze. | |
| Coordinates | 31°38′4″N99°59′7″E / 31.63444°N 99.98528°E /31.63444; 99.98528 |
| Architecture | |
| Founder | Qosot Mongols |
| Established | c. 1642 CE |
Kandze Monastery (alsoGanzi orGarze Monastery orGompa;Tibetan:དཀར་མཛེས་དགོན་པ,Wylie:dkar mdzes dgon pa) is situated 2 km north ofGarzê Town on a hilltop overlooking the town,[1] inTibet.[2]
The monastery was builtc. 1642 CE by theKhoshut or QosotMongols overlooking their castles known as Mazur and Khangsar. It once housed 1,500 monks making it, withChamdo, the largest inKham. The pilgrimage circuit around the monastery was almost eight kilometres long. In the 1909-1918 war the castles were occupied by Chinese troops and are now in ruins.
It has been extensively renovated since 1981 and now houses about 700 monks, including threetulkus - one of whom,Lamdark Rinpoche, returned from Switzerland and established a girls' school.[3][4]
The main Assembly Hall building has a golden roof and has views of the valley and nearby town. It is approached by a long flight of stairs and the inner sanctum is reached though long passageways formed by red wooden columns.
Inside three sets of images are displayed high up in glass cabinets representing the founders of theNyingmapa,Kadampa andGelugpa lineages. There are also a number of finetangkas representing the meditational deities,Guhyasamaja,Cakrasamvara, andYamantaka.[5]
TheMaitreya Hall contains a huge image of Jampa (Maitreya), the Buddha-to-come, flanked by images ofShakyamuni, Tsongkhapa,Dipamkara andSitatapatra.
Upstairs is a library containing theKangyur and old images of the eleven-faced form ofAvalokiteśvara and the great Gelupa teacher,Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419). There is alsoGonkhang room dedicated to the guardian deities mentioned above which is entered through a black and gold door, and painted images of protector deities.
To the northeast of the monastery on a hill is a reconstructed whitechorten (stupa).[6]
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Media related toGanzi monastery at Wikimedia Commons