Tibetan Gaden Monastery Cultural Tour

Unity Church of Richmond is hosting the Tibetan monks of the Gaden Shartse Dokhang Monastery for a week of events that will be open to the public! They are here with the blessing of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to share their culture, practices and paths to inner peace and compassion.

Activities include teachings from Tibetan Buddhism, daily meditations, cultural performances, musical presentations with Tibetan singing bowls and chanting, sand mandala rituals, snow leopard conservation and more!

The Gaden Shartse Dokhang Monastery is part of one of the oldest and most revered monasteries in Tibet, now located in South India. This house has produced many important teachers in the Gelug tradition, including Geshe Thupten Jinpa, the primary English interpreter for His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

Funds raised on this tour will help to build a prayer hall, dormitories and provide for the medical needs for the monks of Gaden Shartse Dokhang Monastery.

A Brief History of Gaden Monastery

Gaden Monastery is one of the three most renowned monasteries of Tibet. Originally founded in Tibet in 1409 by Je Tsongkhapa (1357 – 1419), a preeminent Tibetan preacher, saint, and Buddhist scholar, Gaden is where the Gelugpa School or the Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism emerged. The monastery was built on a majestic mountain just outside of Lhasa.

Gaden quickly became well known for its moral discipline, academic strength, and spiritual values. Monks of all ages poured in from every part of Tibet, Mongolia, China, Japan and Northern India. By the 1950s the population of the monastery had grown to 5,000. The youngest monks started at age seven. All monks, irrespective of their specific focus of study, engaged in rigorous study at the monastery for many years. In addition to in-depth philosophical study, there were trainings in different vocations such as religious music, arts, sculpture, and administrative work.