Shechen Monastery

{{Short description|Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal (formerly Langduo, Sichuan, China)}}

{{Infobox Tibetan Buddhist monastery

|name = Shechen Monastery

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|t= {{bo-textonly|ཞེ་ཆེན་བསྟན་གཉིས་དར་རྒྱས་གླིང་།}}

|w= Zhe-chen bsTan-gnyis-dar-rgyas-gling

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|coordinates = {{coord|32|15|58|N|98|53|10|E|type:landmark_region:|display=inline,title}}

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|location_country = China

|location = Langduo Township, Dege County, Sichuan, China, known as Kham

|founded_by = Shechen Rabjam Tenpé Gyaltsen

|founded = 1695

|date_renovated = 1985

|sect = Nyingma

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Shechen Monastery ({{bo|t=ཞེ་ཆེན་བསྟན་གཉིས་དར་རྒྱས་གླིང|w=zhe chen bstan gnyis dar rgyas gling}}) is one of the "Six Mother Monasteries" of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It was originally located in Kham, Tibet, but was destroyed in the late 1950s during the Cultural Revolution and was rebuilt in Nepal in 1985.

History

The original Shechen Monastery was located southwest of Langduo Township in Kham on the route to Dzogchen Monastery in what is now Dêgê County, Garzê Prefecture, Sichuan, China.Dudjom Rinpoche and Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje (1991), Vol. II, page 485. It was founded in 1695 by the first Shechen Rabjam Tenpé Gyaltsen, though it is sometimes claimed to have been built by Gyurme Kunzang Namgyal, the second Shechen Rabjam, in 1734. It became extremely influential in the 18th and 19th centuries, with up to 160 satellite monasteries dotting the hillsides. The monastery was destroyed in the 1950s as part of the Communist Chinese government's Cultural Revolution.

In the 1980s, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche transplanted the rich tradition of the original Shechen Monastery to a new home near the great Stupa of Boudhanath in Kathmandu, Nepal.{{Cite web|url=https://shechen.org/spiritual-development/monasteries/shechen-tennyi-dargyeling-monastery-kathmandu-nepal/|title=Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery, Baudanath, Nepal ::id="fb-yt" shechen.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.lotusspeech.ca/shechen-monastery/|title=Shechen Monastery | Lotus Speech Canada}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.bhutanmajestictravel.com/news/2010/celebrating-the-100th-anniversary-of-dilgo-khyentse.html|title=Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Dilgo Khyentse|date=2010-05-13|access-date=2010-08-16|publisher=Bhutan Majestic Travel|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707233451/http://www.bhutanmajestictravel.com/news/2010/celebrating-the-100th-anniversary-of-dilgo-khyentse.html|archive-date=2011-07-07}}

Shechen Monastery today

The monastery serves as the main seat of the Shechen tradition in exile. There are more than 300 monks at Shechen Monastery. The monastery teaches music, dance, painting and Buddhist philosophy. Its elementary school provides "a modern education for children between five and fourteen years of age."{{Cite web

| title = Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu

| work = Nepal Channel

| access-date = 2013-10-30

| url = http://www.nepal.com/religious-sites/shechen-monastery/

}}

The present Head is the seventh Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, the grandson of Dilgo Khyentse. Prominent members of the monastery include the Yangsi (Tib.ཡང་སྲིད reincarnation) of Dilgo Khyentse, Khandro Lhamo, Matthieu Ricard and Changling Rinpoche.

Footnotes

References

Dudjom Rinpoche and Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: its Fundamentals and History. Two Volumes. 1991. Translated and edited by Gyurme Dorje with Matthew Kapstein. Wisdom Publications, Boston. {{ISBN|0-86171-087-8}}

External links

[http://www.shechen.org Shechen Monastery in Nepal - the main Shechen website]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090815083752/http://www.shechen.org/spiritual-monastery.php?monastery=tibet-kham Shechen Monastery in Tibet]
[http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Shechen_Rabjam_Rinpoche Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche's profile at Rigpa wiki]

Category:Buddhist temples in Tibet

Category:Buddhist temples in Nepal

Category:1695 establishments in Asia

Category:Religious organizations established in 1695

Category:Buddhist monasteries in Tibet

Category:Tibetan Buddhist temples in the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Category:Nyingma monasteries and temples

Category:1985 establishments in Nepal

Category:Buddhist monasteries in Sichuan