The Tashilunpo
The Tashilunpo Monastery was founded in 1447 by Gendun Drup, a nephew of Tsongkhapa (the founder of the Gelukpa (Yellow Hat) sect, the ruling sect of Tibetan Buddhism), one of his foremost disciples, and, retrospectively, the First Dalai Lama. Shortly after his assumption of power in 1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama declared that his teacher, Losang Chokyi Gyeltsen, then the abbot of Tashilunpo Monastery in Shigatse, was a manifestation of Buddha Amitabha, and the fourth in a line of incarnate lamas starting with Khedrup Je, one of the two chief disciples of Tsongkhapa. Since the abbot of Tashilunpo was already referred to by the title 'Panchen' (Great Scholar), these incarnate lamas were called the Panchen Lamas. Tashilunpo became the official seat of the Panchen Lama, who in turn became, in varying degrees, the chief spiritual and temporal authority in the province of Tsang. In 1922, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, in attempting to bring the Tashilunpo firmly under the jurisdiction of Lhasa, inadvertently caused the ninth Panchen Lama to flee to China, where he spent the remaining years of his life. His successor was born in 1938 in Amdo, close to the Chinese border, and spent much of his life in China. He died mysteriously in Shigatse, in 1989, and the Chinese authorities have disputed the successor chosen by the Tibetans, hidden him and his family, and placed and imposter in his place. One of the most impressive chapels in the Tashilunpo is the Maitreya (Jampa in Tibetan) temple, which houses a 26 meter tall gilded copper of image of the future Buddha.
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