Ganden Monastery

Timeline

1. 1409Wangbur Mountain · DaziTsongkhapa built Ganden Monastery on Wangbur Mountain northeast of Lhasa, and in the same year founded the Monlam Prayer Festival. The new monastery as the Gelug principal seat marked the Yellow Hat school's transition from a reform movement of teaching to an independent lineage with a fixed monastic residence.
2. 1410–1419Ganden Monastery · DaziTsongkhapa resided at Ganden Monastery, broadly teaching sutra and tantra dharma, perfecting the stages of study and monastic discipline. He passed into parinirvana there in 1419; his disciples enshrined his remains in a stupa adorned with gold and silver, making Ganden the Gelug ancestral seat and pilgrimage center.
3. 1419–1430Ganden Monastery · DaziAfter Tsongkhapa's passing, Gyaltsab Je succeeded as abbot and was later honored as the first Ganden Tripa. The Ganden throne became the highest religious seat of the Gelug community, transforming the monastery from the founder's residence into an institutional principal seat passed on in succession.
4. 1416–1447Ü-Tsang monastery region · TibetDisciple Jamyang Chöje built Drepung Monastery in 1416, Shakya Yeshe built Sera Monastery in 1419, and Gendün Drub built Tashilhunpo Monastery in 1447. Ganden as the mother monastery provided the lineage and curriculum model; the three-monastery pattern was thus established, with the Ganden Tripa remaining the symbol of the community's highest seat.
5. 1959Ganden Monastery · DaziThe original monastery suffered severe damage in the mid-to-late 20th century; from the 1980s some halls and monks' quarters were rebuilt, and the kora pilgrimage tradition resumed. The exile community built a monastery of the same name in South India in 1966, allowing the Ganden lineage to continue in parallel at the original site and overseas.