Dzogchen (monastery)

Dzogchen Monastery ( Tib. རྫོང་ ཆེན་ དགོན , rdzogs chen dgon pa ) is one of the six main monasteries representing the Nyingma tradition in Tibetan Buddhism , as well as dzogchen practice. The monastery is located in Dege County in the Gardze-Tibet Autonomous Region in Sichuan Province in China .

The monastery was founded in Dzogchen Pema Rigdzin (1625-1697), different sources date the foundation of the monastery in different ways - 1675 ^[1] , 1684 ^[2] or 1685 . ^[3]

Under the Fourth Dzogchen Rinpoche, Gyales Shenpen Thaye established Sri Singh Shedra University at the monastery, but after a short time the monastery was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1842 . Famous Buddhist teachers Khenpo Pema Vajra , Dza Patrul Rinpoche , Mipam Rinpoche and Khenpo Shenga lived and taught in the monastery. ^[4] The monastery grew and was possibly the largest Nyingma school monastery in history. ^[five]

Under the Fifth Dzogchen-rinpoche (1872-1935), the monastery was at the peak of its activity, when 500 monks lived in it, there were 13 retreat centers and 280 subordinate small monasteries, covering more than ten thousand monks, tulkus , khenpo . Complex rituals and festivals with dances performed by llamas were held here. [one]

Here was the main repository of Konchok Chidu - the Yangter cycle (Wylie: Byang gTer , Northern Jewel ), the famous term opened by the terton Jatson Nyingpo.

In 1936, the main temple was badly damaged by fire. It was later rebuilt. In the late 1950s, the monastery was liquidated by the Chinese authorities, but restored in the early 1980s.

After the destruction of the monastery, the same monastery was rebuilt in South India at the direction of the Dalai Lama .