Labrang Monastery (Tibetan: བླ་བྲང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འཁྱིལ་) is located in Xiahe (Chinese: 夏河) County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (甘南藏族自治州), Gansu (甘肅), China. Founded in 1709, the monastery is one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.
In the early part of the 20th century, Labrang Monastery was by far the largest and most influential monastery in Amdo (ཨ༌མདོ།). At present, Labrang Monastery is still home to the largest number of monks outside Tibet.
At its peak, Labrang Monastery housed nearly 4000 monks, it was one of the largest Buddhist monastic universities.
Institute of Medicine, Manjushri Temple, the Serkung and the main Prayer Hall are the most important buildings in Labrang Monastery, no photo is allowed inside all these buildings.
There is an exhibition hall which displays many colorful yak butter sculptures. It is the practice in Buddhism to offer flowers as a tribute to Buddha statues on altars. However, in winter when no fresh flowers can be found, flowers sculpted from butter are made as an offering.
Now Labrang Monastery is still a popular destination for young disciples, with about 1600 currently in residence, drawn from Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia.
Labrang Monastery is quite touristy, but the local pilgrims are still intact from those dust and dirt, two parallel universes.
