Tibet 07 01 Shigatse Tashilhunpo Entrance [8 of 24]
Tashilhunpo, in Shigatse, is one of the six great Gelugpa institutions and is the largest functioning monastic institution in Tibet, with 800 monks. It was founded in 1447 by Gendun Drub, who retroactively was named the First Dalai Lama. The Fifth Dalai Lama declared his teacher, then abbot of Tashilhunpo, to be a manifestation of Amitabha, founding the Panchen Lama lineage. Tashilhunpo is one of the few monasteries that weathered the stormy seas of the Cultural Revolution relatively unscathed.