Palcho Monastery is located at foot of Zongshan in the northwest of Gyantse and on the provincial road from Yamdrok Lake to Shigatse, a place where the tourists on the way from Lhasa to Shigatse will visit. Palcho Monastery, named as "bankuo Deqing" in Tibetan language which means "Jixiang lundale Temple", is one of the must-visit spots of the tourists traveling to Shigatse. What’s more, Palcho Monastery is the unique temple in Tibet and the achievement of the great integration of Tibetan Buddhism. If you would like to understand the Tibetan Buddhism, Palcho Monastery is a must-visit place.
Palcho Monastery is a typical architecture of Tibetan Buddhism Temple integrated with temples and pagodas enhancing each other in a natural way that pagodas are surrounded by temples and temples are surrounded by pagodas. The architecture fully represents the typical architectural pattern of the temples of gTsang from the end of 13th century to middle of 15th century, which is also the unique well-saved large-scale architectural complex with the significance of monument, temples and pagodas are completely saved. The Palcho Monastery is composed by four arhitectural units, audience hall, auspicious multiple-gates pagoda, Dratsang and fence.
Palcho Monastery was initially built in the second year of Xuande of Xuande Emperor in Ming Dynasty and completed within 10 years. It is a typical architecture of Tibetan Buddhism Temple integrated with temples and pagodas enhancing each other in a natural way that pagodas are surrounded by temples and temples are surrounded by pagodas. The architecture fully represents the typical architectural pattern of the temples of gTsang from the end of 13th century to middle of 15th century. Characteristics of Palcho Monastery
Palcho Monastery was subordinated to Sakya sect previously, later with the successive entrance of Gadang sect and Gelu sect, three sects rejected and fought against each other. Finally, the three sects achieved mutual understanding. Therefore, Palcho Monastery integrates the three sects, Sakya sect, Gadang sect and Gelu sect, thus the temple's worship and architectural style are also eclectic.
Bodai Stupa, the symbol of Palcho Monastery, which exactly endows the special charm to Palcho Monastery. It is not an ordinary pagoda, instead it is built with hundreds of Buddhist halls overlapping successively, which is called as “Pagoda in Pagoda”. The number of Buddhist Halls, niches and Buddhist statues in the frescoes in the Bodai Stupa amount to 100 thousand, hence it is also named as “One hundred thousand Buddhist pagoda”
Another great achievement of Palcho Monastery is its splendid plastic arts, especially the large numbers of extremely exquisite paints and sculptures of the same period with the architectures. Its artistic skill has its own style and has a profound influence on the Tibetan art. The auspicious multiple-gates pagoda is 9-floor viewed externally, instead it is 13-floor inside with 76 Buddhist halls, 108 gates, Shrines and Scripture halls. With more than 100 thousand Buddhist statues together in the hall, it is also named as “One hundred thousand Buddhist pagoda”. There are more than a thousand statues of Buddhist statues made of clay, copper and gold in the pagoda, which can be called the Buddha Museum. Upon entering, it is as if stepping into a grand artistic labyrinth of Tibetan Buddhism. You can overlook the beautiful and rich Gyantse plain and the wandering Nyang Qu. The sculpture and frescoes in the pagoda can be used as a reference for the style of Buddha statues of gTsang.
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