Shannan Attraction-Mindrolling Monastery
Mindrolling Monastery or Minzhulin Temple
Founded by Rigzin Terdak Lingpa in 1676, Mindrolling Monastery is one of the six major Nyingma monasteries in Tibet. It is located in Zhanang County, Shannan Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, about 43km east of the Gonggar airport, on the south of the Tsangpo river. In 1718, Mindrolling was heavily destroyed by Dzungar Mongols from East Turkistan. Then it was rebuilt during the reign of the 7th Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso, and Terdak Lingpa’s son and daughter supervised the reconstruction. In 1959, some monks escaped to India which also caused huge damage to this monastery. In 1965, the escaped monks had also rebuilt a Mindrolling monastery in Dehradun, India.
For nearly 300 years, Mindrolling was used as a monastic university that trained Nyingma scholars and yogis from the whole Tibet. And the monks put emphasis on learning Buddhist scriptures, astronomy, calligraphy, rhetoric, Tibetan lunar calendar and traditional Tibetan medicine. Besides, the masonry stone wall is also famous in Tibet and has a high value to Tibetan architecture. The whole monastery covers an area of about ten (ha) and its main temple of this monastery is Zura Kang.
Mindrolling Incense
Mindrolling Incense is rewarded as one of the Three Tibetan Incense and has a long history of its origin. It contains many raw materials such as eaglewood, saffron and other 30 kinds of materials. All the procedures including raw material processing, molding, airing and packing are completed by human hand. Therefore, making a high-quality incense takes long time. That’ why Mindrolling incense have a low output every year, and it also highlights its precious.