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Labrang Monastery
The Labrang Monastery is located at the
foot of the Phoenix Mountain northwest of Xiahe County in
Gannan Tibetan Nationality Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu
Province. A propitious place in the hearts of the Tibetan,
it stands by the Daxia River and faces the Dragon Mountain.
As for the Dragon and Phoenix Mountains,
there is a beautiful legend. A long time ago, this place
was a boundless sea. After countless changes, mountains
and lands appeared. One day, a golden-wing phoenix flew
here and rested on one of the mountains in the south. It
was so thirsty that it drank all the water; thus the sea
dried up. A dragon in the sea was greatly shocked, so it
cavorted out of the water, which led to the emergence of
a spring at the site where the phoenix drank. As the spring
water effused more and more, the Daxia River was formed.
So the dragon became the Dragon Mountain and the phoenix
became the Phoenix Mountain. And the Daxia River flowed
from west to east through the two mountains, eroding the
hollow into a basin. The Labrang Monastery was built on
the Zhaxiqi (means auspiciousness) shoal which is in the
north of the basin.
he architectural layout of the Labrang
Monastery belongs to the Tibetan style and the construction
patterns are mostly Tibetan, Han's mode and a compound style
of both Han's and Tibetan. The symbols of the whole construction
are the White Towers both in the northeast and in the northwest.
The grand sutra and Buddha halls are located in the northwestern
part centered around the Grand Sutra Hall. Other halls spread
in a shape similar to a crescent moon.
The Grand Sutra Hall is the dominant place
for the religious activities of the Labrang Monastery and
for the adherents' worshipping. On the inside walls there
are portraits of Buddha and built-in shrines of Buddha and
bookcases. The elegantly decorated hall is splendid enough
to give you real enjoyment.
Located in the northwest of the Grand
Sutra Hall, the Grand Golden Tile Hall is the highest building
in the Labrang Monastery and is strongly tinged with a Nepalese
flavor. It is six-storied and the roof is covered with bronze
bricks that are washed by gold. In front of the hall gate,
a stele hangs on which the Han, Tibetan, Manchu and Mongolian
characters were written by the Emperor Jiaqing (1760-1820)
of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Inside the hall there is
a bronze figure of Buddha created by Nepalese artisans.
The Labrang Monastery boasts tens of thousands
of statues of Buddha made of gold, silver, copper, and aluminum.
There are statues with ivory, sandalwood, jade, crystal
and clay as the basic materials. These Buddha statues are
all lifelike with kind-looking faces, which give you a real
enjoyment of beauty. In addition, the monastery possesses
many Buddha hats and many Buddhist treasures adorned with
pearls, jadeite, agate and diamonds.
The Labrang Monastery holds seven large-scale
summon ceremonies a year, among which the Summons Ceremony
in the first lunar month and the Buddhist Doctrine Explaining
Ritual in the seventh lunar month are the grandest ones.
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