The Taishan Beidou Labrang Monastery in Tibetan Buddhism

A county town called Xiahe, which I heard of for the first time, surprisingly has a higher education institution of Tibetan Buddhism, Labrang Monastery. It is one of the six major monasteries of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism (also known as Lamaism) in China. The monastery houses more than 3,000 disciples, and its religious system is composed mainly of six colleges: the College of Buddhist Logic, the College of Medicine, the College of Kalachakra, the College of Vajra, the Upper Tantric College, and the Lower Tantric College. It is said to be the Tsinghua and Peking University of Tibetan Buddhism, with the most complete institutional setup among the monasteries in the entire Mongolian and Tibetan regions. Each temple is painted with different colors of soil-based paint such as red, yellow, and white according to its function and rank. The balconies and eaves are adorned with colorful cloth curtains. The roofs and walls of medium and large buildings are decorated with various small and medium-sized statues of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, stupas, and ritual objects made of different materials, such as gilded copper dharma wheels, yin-yang beasts, treasure vases, banners, golden roofs, and lions. It takes nearly an hour to complete a round of the corridor composed of more than 2,000 prayer wheels.