Kongpo Regional House Headquarters
(kong po khang tshan)

<-- Back to Panorama

Related Resource Links:

Images of Kongpo Regional House Headquarters

THL Reference Number: s056

College Affiliation: Mé (smad)

Regional House Affiliation: Kongpo (kong po)

This is the main regional house (khang tshan) compound of the Kongpo (kong po) Regional House, one of the best-restored regional house compounds in the monastery. Located on the Sera (se ra) main sand street, it is one of the most aesthetically pleasing regional houses, both architecturally and artistically. The regional house temple has fabulous murals. All of the artwork, however, is new. The golden st?pa on the main altar contains the relics of a lama (bla ma) of this regional house whose reincarnation is in India. The renovation of the regional house was completed in 1991. It took two artists a total of three years to complete the murals inside the temple. A Tibetan man (identified as Dawa Döndrup [zla ba don grub]) and his family (from Kongpo) sponsored all of the artwork inside the temple. They are depicted on the back wall of the temple (left as one enters). The two artists’ names are Tsering Norbu (tshe ring nor bu) and Buchung (bu chung, per the inscription on the back wall).

It seems that throughout its history this regional house produced at least two holders of the Ganden (dga’ ldan) throne: Sharchen Ngawang Tsültrim (shar chen ngag dbang tshul khrims, nineteenth century), abbot of Sharchen Monastery in Kongpo; and Gyel+wang Chöjé Lozang Trinlé Namgyel (rgyal dbang chos rje blo bzang ’phrin las rnam rgyal, also nineteenth century), author of the Gyel+wang Dzö (rgyal bang mdzod), a renowned commentary on Abhidharma philosophy. Among the more important contemporary scholars from this regional house are the great polymath Dungkhar Lozang Trinlé (dung mkhar blo bzang ’phrin las, 1927-199?), who published extensively on history and poetics especially (he lived in Lhasa); and the erudite Geshé Jampel Senggé (dge bshes ’jam dpal seng ge), who left Tibet in 1959, was invited by Guiseppe Tucci to Italy, and worked at IsMEO (Rome) until his death in 1981.

<-- Back to Panorama