Tsedrup Monastery

Tsedrup Monastery, regarded as Tibet's largest and oldest Bon monastery, is one of the most amazing sites in the area. If you have enough time, this monastery is highly recommended. 

Tsedrup Monatery is about 45 kilometers away from the county town. “Tsedrup” means six sared mounts which symbolize “Six-Degree Paramita”. It was said that Tsedrup Monastery was set up by King Mochi Tsampo, with a history of more than 3,000 years. At the time of Lama Garwang Namgyal, the sutra systems of both Exoteric and Esoteric Sects had further normalization and systematization, which made the sutra systems getting to a new stage. Before Liberation, Tsedrup Monastery was influential in architectural scale, the number of the monks, sutra system, the style of sorcerer dance and other aspects among Chamdo Prefecture and the circles of Bon Religion.

Bon Religion is called “Bonpo Quru’ in Tibetan. It is an ancient primitive religion prevalent in Tibetan area before the Buddhism introduction. Owing to the historical reasons, the Bon Religion which took the political and religious power of Tibet at a time had to resign sovereign authority to Buddhism and hide in the outlying, secret places. As a result Denqen became the most influential district with most monasteries and followers of Bon. And Tsedrup Monastery is a monastery with a large scale, numerous disciples and Sadhana preserved intact among the extant monasteries in Kham.

There is a Naked Sorcerer Dance which is peculiar to Bon Religion in Tsedrup Monastery. During the sorcerer dance, the dancers are naked all over except covering a piece of G-string and painted with various strange patterns on the faces and bodies which present a simple and primitive style. According to the Sadhana of Bon Religion, they only perform the dance on June 15th in Year of Rooster in Tibetan calendar, that is to say, giving a performance every twelve years. The lively images and native thinking reflect the circumstances of hell in the notion of the Bon Religion and give publicity to the various hardships people would surfer in the hell as the retribution for sins.

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