Description
Leaving the border with Nepal we drove over 5000-meter mountain passes to Shigatse. Its famous Tashilhunpo monastery is the seat of the Panchen Lama, the second most important religious leader of Tibet. His influence plays a critical role even today that may influence the spiritual future of the country.
Tashilhumpo. Even the name has a mysterious resonance. Tashilhumpo Monastery is one of the most important monasteries in Tibet. It partners with Drepung, Sera, and Ganden from around Lhasa and Amdo and Labram from Kham, to represent the most important 6 Gelupka monasteries in Tibet.
The monastery dates from 1447 being founded by a disciple of Je Tsong Kapa, the founder of the Gelugpa School of Tibetan Buddhism, known also as the Yellow Hats, the school that conducted the religious affairs of Tibet in the last 500 years. Contrary to the common belief the Dalai Lama is not the head of the sect, this title being accorded by tradition to the abbot of Ganden Monastery.
The monastery did not play an important role till the 17th century when, Lobsang Gyatso, the 5th Dalai Lama, appointed his personal tutor, Khedrup Je as abbot at Tashilhumpo and conferred him the title of Panchen Lama that translates as “Great Scholar”. This also came with an important religious role, the Panchen Lama being the second in the Tibetan religious hierarchy after Dalai Lama. As it happened with the title of Dalai Lama, Kedrup Je was considered as the Fourth Panchen Lama but the first to receive this title during his lifetime.
When the bodily incarnation of the Dalai Lama passed away a group of monks forms a search committee starts to look for his reincarnation in the entire Tibet. As the second in command in the religious order of Tibet, Panchen Lama has the final say in the identification of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.
Dalai Lama is considered in Tibet the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the Boddhisatva of Compassion, Cherezin as is known in Tibetan.
Panchen Lama is considered the incarnation of Amithaba, the Buddha of Cognition and Perception.
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