Ganzi Monastery

Ganzi Monastery belongs to the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and is the dominant religious building in town, visible from a considerable distance by its gilded roofline. The main assembly hall is spacious and active — monks conduct ceremonies here through most of the day, and the smell of yak butter lamps and incense pervades the interior. The murals in the hall are well-executed and relatively new, painted by skilled craftspeople from other Tibetan monasteries in the reconstruction period.

The monastery sits on a low hill above the town's commercial centre and offers a reasonable view of the valley and the mountains to the north. A circuit of the outer walls takes about twenty minutes and passes several smaller chapels and a collection of large prayer wheels. Entry is free. The monastery is busiest in the early morning between 7 and 9 when the monks gather for prayers, but it remains accessible throughout the day.

things to do sight monastery
A story
Ganzi Monastery was founded in 1662 by the fifth Dalai Lama, who sent a delegation from Lhasa to establish a Gelug presence in the Kham region. For the next three centuries it served as the principal religious institution of the area, and its political authority often outweighed that of the local secular rulers. The monastery was badly damaged in the Cultural Revolution but has been substantially rebuilt since the 1980s — the new buildings incorporate older murals and sacred objects that survived hidden away.