Ganden Monastery

The Ganden Monastery is one of the great three Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet (the other two being Drepung and Sera). It lies at 4500 metres a.s.l. on the Wangbur Mountain, 47 km east of Lhasa. Being the furthest away from Lhasa of the three Gelupka monasteries, Ganden has a smaller monk population. However, it was the original monastery of the Geluk order, founded by Tsongkhapa himself, and traditionally considered to be the seat of Geluk administrative and political power. The monastery nowadays houses 400 monks.