Ragya Monastery

Ragya monastery (ra rgya, pronounced Rajia in the Amdo dialect), is the second-largest Buddhist monastery in Qinghai, with over 500 monks. It is located in Maqin County of Qinghai Province at the bottom of Ami-gonchen (a myes mgon chen) Mountain, on the northern banks of the Yellow River. It is 380 km away from the provincial capital of Xining. This site is under protection of the Cultural Relics Preservation Unit of Qinghai Provincial level.

The founder of this monastery is the famous monk Arou Geshe Gyentsen Ozer (‘a rig dge bshes rgyal mtsan ’od zer) (1726–1803). He was sent here by the 7th Dalai Lama Kelsang Gyatso (skal bzang rgya mtsho) (1708-1757) and built Ragya monastery in 1769. The curriculum of Sera monastery’s

Trantric Collage was used to establish the local Gyupa Dratsang (Tantric College). The 6th Panchen Lama Palden Yeshi (dpal ldan ye shes) (1738-1780) honored the founder with title of “Erdene Morgun Kenbo”. In 1793, Arou Geshe gave an empowerement to the second reincarnation of Tsongkapa’s mother, the second Shingza (shing-bza’) Lobsang Dargye Gyatso (blo bzang dar rgyas rgya mtsho) (1759 – 1824). Since that time, each new incarnation of Shingza Rinpoche automatically became the head of Ragya monastery.

Ragya monastery is mainly composed of five Dratsang-s (grva tshang), or Buddhist Studies Colleges: the Sutra College (mtsan nyid grva tshang), the Tantric College (rgyud pa grva tshang), Karichakra College (dus ‘khor grva tshang), Medical College (sman pa grva tshang) and Tamdrin College (rta mgrin grva tshang).