Mindroling Monastery

Mindroling Monastery is founded in 1676 by Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorje. The monastery enjoyed a close association with the Fifth Dalai Lama, but was destroyed during the Dzungar war of 1717-8 and was rebuilt during the reign of the Seventh Dalai Lama (1708-1757). The heads of Mindroling are the hereditary successors of Minling Terchen. The last head, Minling Trichen Rinpoche, was the eleventh throneholder.

Mindroling Monastery is the one of the six major monasteries of the Nyingma school in Tibet. It is located in Zhanang County, Shannan Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, approximately 43 kilometers east of the Lhasa airport, on the south side of the Tsangpo river.

At Mindroling, special emphasis was placed on the learning of Buddhist scriptures, astronomy, Tibetan lunar calendar, calligraphy, rhetoric, and Traditional Tibetan medicine. Monks traditionally studied thirteen major sutra and tantra texts of the Nyingma, and learned the practices stemming from various terma, especially from the lineage of Terdak Lingpa. The monastery had at one time, over one hundred satellites and its throne holder was one of the most revered in Tibet.