Dentig Gompa is located at 55km east of Hualong County and 160km east of Xining in Qinghai Province. It is one of the 18 power places on the Tibetan Plateau. The monastery is surrounded by red clay mountains.
Dentig is a Geluk monastery in Amdo. It was first founded in the tenth century and converted to Geluk in the early seventeenth century. Revered as a foremost power-place associated with the Buddha-mind through Kham and Amdo, Dentik is also closely associated with the second propagation of Buddhism in Tibet.
The overview of Dentig Gompa Monastery
It was at Dentig that the three Tibetan hermits Mar Shakyamuni, Tsang Rabsel and Yo Gejung accepted Gongpa Rabsel, who became one of the most important figures of the revival, as their student. Legend has it that the ten men of Utsang who were to bring Buddhism back to central Tibet were ordained here by Gongpa Rabsel. Gongpa Rabsel again ordained the “ten monks from Ü and Tsang”, including Lume, and thus continued the traditional line. According to legend, three monks from a meditation center called Pel Chowori, took a donkey-load of Vinaya and Abhidharma texts and fled, first to Ngari, then to Mongolia, and finally to Amdo, where they found still-active Buddhist centers in the Dentig. There they settled at Achung Namdzong monastery. Many more monks from Tibet also headed to Amdo Tibet when their dharma centers were closed, also bringing scriptures with them. However, it is the three monks named above who factor in the legend of Gongpa Rabsel and the triumphant reintroduction of monastic Buddhism to Tibet for which he is given credit in Tibetan legend.
Pilgrims in Dentig Gompa on a annually festival
According to hagiographies, Lachen Gongpa Rabsel spent the last decades of his life in a cave called Martsang Drak, said to be named for the activity there of two of his preceptors; Yo settled in a place nearby that came to be known as Yo Gelung, later changed to Chi Gelong. He passed away in a wood-pig year, sometimes given as 1035 but more likely to have been one hundred twenty years earlier, or 915. A clay reliquary was made in which his entire body was placed and installed in the cave; later the cave collapsed and his intact body was recovered from the reliquary. His devotees built a small monastery there with his body as the main object of faith. Subsequent legends developed telling of the body speaking and appearing in visions.
The gate of main temple in Dentig Monastery.
Further to the east from Dentig is the Yangtig hermitage site. This is located in the cliffs, so for your own safety, we don’t recommend to go there as you need to go through some very narrow paths in the middle of the steep cliffs.
How to get to Dentig Gompa?
There is no direct bus from Xining. But you can take a bus from Xining to Hualong town and then take the local minivan to Korpa village from where you can either higher a car up to Dentig or hike in the red mountains.
Main Assembly hall in Dentig Monastery
No entrance fee is charged in Dentig monastery, however, after few statues were stolen several years ago, the monastery decided to close temples when there is no pilgrim. So you need to find the monk manager to open the door to visit inside.
