PHEP SU – Welcome

KHANDRO THENSUK – Long Life Prayer

KHABDRO SEMKYE - Generating Compassion

SHA-MA - Deer and Buffalo Dance

CHOED - Cutting

DUR DAK - Lords of the Cemetery

KUNRIK - All Knowing

BAKSHI - Lords of Death

KANGSO – Thanksgiving

TRUESO – Purification  

TAKSEL - The Art of Debate

SHA NAK - Black Hat Dance

SHIJOE – Prayers of Dedication

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery is the seat of the lineage of the Panchen Lamas - second only  in importance as spiritual leaders of Tibet to the Dalai Lama.  The monastery was founded by the First Dalai Lama in 1447 in Shigatse, Tibet's second largest city.  It is one of the four great monasteries of the Gelugpa (or Yellow Hat) tradition, and is renowned for its scholarship in Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy and the Tantric tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

By the time of the Fourth Panchen Lama, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen, there were more than 3,000 monks in the Monastery.  By 1959, their numbers had grown to 5,000, with another 2,000 monks affiliated to the monastery outside Tibet.

The Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 and the Cultural Revolution from 1966-80 wreaked destruction on the great monastic institutions, including Tashi Lhunpo, which lost many of the precious scriptures, statues and images.  Of the 5,000 monks in the monastery, only 250 were able to follow the Dalai Lama into exile.

In 1972, under the patronage of the present (Fourteenth) Dalai Lama, Tashi Lhunpo Monastery was re-established in the Southern Indian state of Karnataka.  Occupying a central position in the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe, the Monastery is now home to 250 monks, and has once again regained its reputation as an important centre for learning and the preservation of their unique culture and traditions.

The Tenth Panchen Rinpoche was born in 1938 in Eastern Tibet.  He was recognised by the Dalai Lama in 1952, when he joined Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Shigatse.  His outspoken comments about the Communist Chinese policies in Tibet led to his imprisonment for nearly 10 years during the Cultural Revolution.  On his release, he was able to begin the restoration of the Monastery, but in 1989 he died suddenly, bringing to an end the life of one of the most misunderstood lamas in Tibet's culture - and one of the most courageous critics of Mao's regime.

According to the Tibetan tradition of reincarnation, the search began for the Eleventh Panchen Rinpoche.  In January 1995, all the signs confirmed that the true reincarnation had been born, and was living in Tibet.  In April 1995, the Dalai Lama confirmed the news officially - but on 17th May the six-year-old child, Gedun Choekyi Nyima, and his family disappeared from their home, apparently being held in police custody.  In his place, the Chinese authorities selected their own Panchen Lama, by drawing lots from a golden urn, and he was enthroned in December 1995.  The whereabouts of Gedun Choekyi Nyima are still unknown.

The Tibetan Monastic dance tradition – known as ‘Cham’ - originated with the earliest Buddhist practice, and the great Masters passed their vision of deities in movement to their students through the great Buddhist lineages.  The Great Fifth Dalai Lama codified many of the dances in his 'Cham Yig' (Sacred Dance Text), and so ensured their survival - each according to the traditions of the individual monasteries - handed down by the Dance Masters to their students.  Tashi Lhunpo's Cham is unique in its detailed movements and costumes.  The traditional chants heard tonight are shortened versions of the prayers used in the Monastery from day to day.

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery UK Trust was founded in September 2003. His Holiness the Dalai Lama kindly agreed to become Patron of the Trust, which has five Trustees.  

The Trust aims to develop awareness and facilitate access to the unique culture of Tibet, especially of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, by organising artistic tours, educational workshops and cultural exchanges.  The Trust works to improve the living conditions of the monks inside the Monastery both by assisting with construction and technical projects as well as to help by improving the educational and health facilities.  There are also associated projects within linked monasteries and nunneries in Ladakh.

Recent fund-raising projects undertaken within the Monastery include the provision of irrigation equipment, enabling the best use to be made of farmland surrounding the monastery campus, and the second stage of the school building project, where over 140 students now study.    In Ladakh, the Trust has funded the building of a school in a remote nunnery in Zangskar, and has sent an English teacher to work in Thiksey Monastery School near Leh.

The current major project is the construction of a new Main Prayer Hall (Dukhang), to accommodate the growing number of monks.  The Trust also runs a sponsorship programme and is appealing for contributions towards the Food Fund.

The Trust organises biennial cultural tours of the Masked Dances and Sacred Chant of the Monastery to the UK and Europe, during which they carry out workshops in schools and for mixed ages in order to inform audiences about Tibetan monastic culture and undertake sand mandala exhibitions.

The day-to-day management of the monastery and the education of the young monks are solely dependent on public support and individual donations.  Your financial assistance can be used to sponsor a monk’s basic needs and educational costs or help bring to reality a number of important planned projects.  Please visit our shop today and for any more information, please get in touch.

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery UK Trust

Regd. Charity No. 1100175

PO Box 2284, Salisbury, SP2 2JA

Tel:  01722 782265  Fax:  01722 782703

Website:  www.tashi-lhunpo.org.uk   E-mail: info@tashi-lhunpo.org.uk