Explore the monastery founded in 1409, its colleges, throne and remembrance of Tsongkhapa.
A monastery on the mountain
Tsongkhapa founded Ganden east of Lhasa in 1409, the year he inaugurated the Great Prayer Festival. The monastery gave his community a lasting centre for study and teaching. Ganden, Drepung and Sera are the three great Gelug monasteries of Lhasa, each with its own founding history and colleges.
The meaning of Ganden
Ganden is associated with Tushita, the Joyful realm linked in Buddhist tradition with Maitreya. The name carries a devotional meaning. Accounts of predictions and auspicious signs belong to sacred-place narratives and should be distinguished from dated institutional history.
Tsongkhapa’s later years
Ganden was an important setting for Tsongkhapa’s later teaching and practice. Following his death in 1419, disciples continued his teachings and succession. Reliquaries and memorial spaces express remembrance of the founder. Destruction and restoration form part of the monastery’s history; present structures are not all original fifteenth-century fabric.
Shartse and Jangtse: the two colleges of Ganden
The monks of Ganden belong to two great colleges (dratsang): Shartse, “East Peak”, and Jangtse, “North Peak”. The names are usually explained by the position of each college on the mountain.
Colleges and houses
A college runs the curriculum, debate, examinations and assemblies under its abbot (khenpo). Within each college, regional houses (khangtsen) look after new monks, their daily needs and mutual support. A student monk belongs to both a college and a house.
Two textbook traditions
Gelug colleges study from the “textbooks” (yigcha) of particular scholars. Shartse follows Panchen Sonam Drakpa (1478–1554), as Drepung Loseling does; Jangtse follows Jetsun Chokyi Gyaltsen (1469–1544), as Sera Je does. The two sets read the same classics with different emphases, which keeps debate between colleges lively.
From Collected Topics to Geshe
New monks usually begin with Collected Topics, Mind and Awareness, and Signs and Reasoning, then study the five great texts: Perfection of Wisdom, Middle Way, Valid Cognition, Abhidharma and Vinaya. The full course often takes fifteen to twenty years or more and leads to the Geshe examinations, with ranks such as Lharampa and Tsogrampa. Neither college specialises in a single tantra, and details of years and exams vary by period.
The colleges and the Ganden throne
Shartse Choje and Jangtse Choje are two senior offices, usually reached by retired abbots of the Upper and Lower Tantric Colleges, whose holders succeed in turn to the Ganden throne. They share the colleges’ names but are not the ordinary abbots of the colleges. See the Ganden Tripa and Gyuto and Gyumed.
The colleges in Mundgod, South India
After 1959 many monks went into exile in India. In the 1960s Ganden was re-established in the Tibetan settlement at Mundgod, Karnataka, where Shartse and Jangtse resumed their study, debate and exams and now receive monks from the Himalayan region and around the world. Ganden near Lhasa and the colleges in Mundgod are separate places, so check which one a photo, event or contact refers to.
The throne and its succession
The Ganden Tripa holds Tsongkhapa’s throne and serves as the formal head of the Gelug tradition. This office differs from the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama incarnate lineages. The Shartse and Jangtse Choje offices are connected with the tantric-college succession and are not simply the ordinary abbacies of Ganden’s two colleges.
Places and visiting
Re-established Shartse and Jangtse colleges also stand in Mundgod, Karnataka, India. Identify the location when viewing photographs or event notices. Ganden Ngamchoe, the twenty-fifth day of the tenth Tibetan month, commemorates Tsongkhapa. Check local visitor arrangements and photography rules before travelling.
Questions about Shartse and Jangtse
How do Shartse and Jangtse differ?
Both study the five great texts towards the Geshe degree. They differ mainly in textbook tradition, organisation and their houses: Shartse follows Panchen Sonam Drakpa, Jangtse follows Jetsun Chokyi Gyaltsen.
Is Shartse the same as the Shartse Choje?
No. Shartse is a college of Ganden; the Shartse Choje is an office on the path to the Ganden throne, usually held by a former abbot of Gyuto. Jangtse and the Jangtse Choje are related in the same way.
Why is Ganden called the founding seat of Gelug?
Tsongkhapa founded it himself, taught there and passed away there in 1419, and the highest Gelug throne, the Ganden Tripa, takes its name from it. Read more about Tsongkhapa.
Where can I visit?
The historic monastery stands on a mountain east of Lhasa; the rebuilt Shartse and Jangtse colleges are in Mundgod, South India. Check each monastery’s current arrangements, keep quiet and follow photography rules.
Which other Gelug monasteries should I read about?
Continue with Sera and its debate, Drepung and Tashi Lhunpo to compare their colleges.