History

To understand how Tibetan Buddhism differs from other Buddhist schools we need to consider its development from two different perspectives, the first ideological and the second historical. Although these are here considered separately, they of course developed with reference to each other. Ideological Development Ideologically Tibetan Buddhism is a derivation of Mahayana Buddhism heavily influenced […]

Buddhism is said to have traveled into China along the Silk Road in the first half of the first century AD. Its rise to prominence grew in proportion to the increasing traffic along the Silk Road, so that by the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), when China’s capital, Chang’an, was one of the world’s most prosperous […]

Day One Today you will fly to Chengdu, the capital of modern Sichuan province. A historic capital serving as the traditional gateway to the Tibetan plateau, Chengdu has in recent years become a vibrant and sophisticated metropolis. Prepare yourself for mouth-watering Sichuan food, wonderful cultural sites and of course one of the rarest bears on our […]

Jamyang Choje, a disciple of Tsongkhapa, founded Drepung Monastery in 1416. He is reputed to have been born to a wealthy family near the town of Samye and to have secured the initial financing for the monastery’s construction from a wealthy childhood friend. Likewise, the monastery’s immediate popularity, with some 2,000 monks in residence within […]

“They were the oddest hills in the world, and the most Chinese, because these are the hills that are depicted in every Chinese scroll. It is almost a sacred landscape – it is certainly an emblematic one.” Paul Theroux, Riding the Iron Rooster, 1988 When looking at a Chinese painting, most visitors will remark upon […]