Kumbum Monastery

The Kumbum Monastery, founded in 1583 by the third Dalai Lama on his way to Mongolia to teach Buddhism, is the second most important monastery after that of Lhasa in Tibet.

It was built around the ‘Tree of the Great Merit’, a sandalwood tree that - according to the legend - indicates the spot where Tsongkhapa, the founder of the ‘yellow hat’ sect of Tibetan Buddhism, was born.

The highlight of the Monastery is a golden-tiled temple erected precisely around the Tree of the Great Merit.

In a way, somehow, a leap back into Ladakh…