Galden Jampaling Monastery

Overview
Located on a hilltop, the monastery is an active one. There are about 1000 monks live in. Jangsem Sherab Zangpo founded the monastery was in 1444. The founder was a disciple of Tsongkhapa. In 1912 it was destroyed. After the Tibetan army retook Chamdo in 1917, people rebuilt the monastery.

Route for Visit
In the morning, the exterior of the walled compound are usually walked by the pilgrims. You can also follow them for one circuit. If you want to see a sky-burial site, you can follow the trails behind the monastery to the north of town. From there you can also have beautiful views over the city. If you want to see something more interesting, you can follow the steep paved road up to the east gate. Here you will find you are surrounded by lines of Tibetan teahouses, tailors and prayer-wheel repair workshops.

Buildings
The impressive Tsenyi Lhakhang is the first building on the right. A debating courtyard is located behind it. There is a side entrance just to the left of the college. You may go through the entrance, take an immediate left up the stairs and turn right to reach the top of the monastery. There you will find a gonkhang packed with guns, knives and pistols. All these are in memory of those long-passing warriors. You can then go back outside to see the monastery’s enormous kitchen. It is quite different from any other kitchen. Unfortunately,   only men can enter the kitchen.

When the main dukhang is packed with hundreds of murmuring monks, the picture is just beyond any expression. This court is possibly the largest assembly of monks outside festival times in Tibet today.

Statues
The grand inner sanctum houses the statues of Sakyamuni, Tsongkhapa and Atisha. The statue of the Pakhapala stands second to the left on the line of religious leaders that head the monastery. The bearded statue in the far right is of the monastery’s founder.

The gonkhang is in the main monastery courtyard. The place is lined with beautiful murals and statues of protector gods. Lots of old armour also are contained here. Once more we are reminded of the old warrior time. A large new statue of Jampa is in the Jamkhang to the south.

The former residence of the Pakhpala is located behind the gonkhang. Now his  11th reincarnation works for the Tibetan government in Lhasa. You can get out of the building from the exit in the southwest corner. Then you will follow the way and go to the Tsenkhang. The place is hidden around the back of the interior courtyard. There is a fantastic collection of protectors in it. Those pretectors are strung up on a series of pillars. It looks just like a crack squad of gravity-defying martial arts warriors. Now we can see that this place is also filled with worrior culture and remains. You can even find some skeleton and monkey outfits. Those stuffs are worn during cham dances or stuffed bear. At last there is  a small tsampa mill on the back.

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