Labrang Monastery

Labrang Monastery, founded in 1709 by the first Jamyang Zhépa, is one of the six great monasteries of the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism — the tradition of the Dalai Lama. The complex spreads along the valley floor below the town, its golden roofs and whitewashed walls enclosing assembly halls, debating courtyards, chapels, and a printing house. Six colleges operate within the walls, covering philosophy, medicine, tantra, and astrology, and the monastery remains a functioning centre of learning.

Guided tours depart at 10:15 and 15:15 daily from the ticket office near the main gate. They cover the principal assembly hall, several of the chapels housing important statues and thangkas, and the debating courtyard where monks gather for philosophical argument. Photography rules change depending on the time and the political climate — ask your guide before pointing a camera. The Gongtang Chorten at the monastery's eastern entrance, a multi-storey reliquary tower with a gilded upper section, offers views back across the complex and down the valley.

things to do sight historic site
A story
At its peak in the early twentieth century, Labrang housed over four thousand monks and functioned as the largest Tibetan Buddhist academy outside Lhasa. During the Cultural Revolution it was devastated — most of its buildings destroyed and monks dispersed. The reconstruction that followed, beginning in the 1980s, has been so thorough that the complex now looks much as it did before, a reminder of both the destruction and the resilience of the institution.