Tashi Lhunpo Monks (Tibet)Wisdom & Insight

A performance of spectacular masked dances accompanied by alp horns, sacred chants, song and meditation. Many of the colourful rituals are accompanied with an explanatory narration.In 1447, the First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drupe, inspired through visions and dreams, inaugurated Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in U-Tsang, the central province of Tibet, with the Bramaputra River flowing nearby. For nearly six hundred years, the monastery has provided a haven for the study of Mahayana Buddhism and the practice of Tantra. It became the seat of the Panchen Lama – the second most important spiritual leader of Tibet after His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This performance of sacred prayer, chanting, meditation and monastic dance tells the story of the monastery from its origins and the great lineages of the Panchen Lamas, through the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution and the Chinese invasion in 1949 to its re-establishment fifty years ago to its home in exile in South India.