Thubten Chokor Ling
Land for the Mayul School was donated by nearby Thubten Chokor Ling monastery.
Lungngon Thubten Chokor Ling (Long’en Si in Chinese) is located in Gande county, 4100 meters above sea level, 45 km southwest from Gande county town along the Ke Chu River. It is the largest Nyingma monastery in Gande county. According to legend it began as a small tent temple in 1797. By 1958 it had more than 300 monks. In 1958 following religious reforms the monks were secularized and it stopped functioning as a temple.
In the early 1980s, under the leadership of H.H. Kusum Lingpa it was rebuilt and by 1984 started housing religious activities again and reopened in 1985. The temple now hosts several major annual religious festivals. It runs a store and operates a Tibetan medicine clinic. It also has a 45 person traveling Tibetan opera troupe. It builds housing for local welfare recipients, and it is much loved by the locals. All of these things have emerged under the leadership of Kusum Lingpa, who is the 9th head of the temple, and under whose guidance the temple has become self-sustaining economically. He has also emphasized the study of Tibetan culture, so monks at the temple study both traditional Tibetan medicine and traditional cultural arts.
Adapted from Nian Zhihai and Bai Gengdeng, Qinghai Zang chuan fo jiao si yuan ming jian, Lanzhou: Gansu Minzu Chubanshe, 1993. With thanks to Professor Megan Greene and Jun Fu.
