Wutun Upper Monastery

Wutun Upper Monastery lies about 14 kilometres north of Tongren in the village of Wutun, set back from the road in a wide valley. It is a Nyingma institution, and together with the lower monastery just to the south forms the artistic heart of the Rebkong tradition. The monastery is filled with paintings and sculptures, and many of the rooms double as workshops where local artists continue producing thangkas and other sacred images.

Note that during July through early September women are traditionally not permitted in certain areas of the monastery. Visitors are generally welcome to watch artists at work in the workshops — this is the most vivid part of the experience. The surrounding village has stone lanes and whitewashed walls worth exploring. Minibuses run from Tongren to Wutun; the journey takes about 20 minutes.

things to do sight
A story
The paintings inside Wutun Upper Monastery are not reproductions or recent copies: some of the murals here are genuinely old, surviving from earlier centuries of continuous artistic practice in this valley. The artists who made them were farmers as well as painters, and the works carry a vitality that monastic art produced purely within closed institutions often lacks.

Other places in Things to Do