Tashilhunpo Monastery is located at the foot of Drolmari Mountain at Shigatse, the second largest city of Tibet. It is one of the Six Big Monasteries of Gelugpa (or Yellow Hat Sect) in Tibet. It stands on a whooping area of around 300,000 sq. m and is also known as a seat of the Panchen Lama who is considered to be the second most important religious leader of Tibet.

Tashilhunpo is the seat of the Panchen Lama, the second most important Buddhist position after the Dalai Lama, since the Fourth Panchen Lama took charge in the monastery and each of them expanded the structure of it. Now, Tashilhunpo Monastery covers an area of nearly 300,000 square meters. In its prime it gave home to more than 4000 monks and 4 Tantric colleges, each of them with an own Abbot who led the search for infant incarnation after a Panchen Lama had died. During the Cultural Revolution 2/3rd of the monastery buildings were destroyed. Luckily most of them were residences of the approximately 4000 monks; the monastery itself was not badly damaged. In the 1960's many senior lamas and monastics re-established new monasteries in countries like India and Nepal and therewith enlarged their monasteries a lot. As the Panchen Lama of Tashilhunpo Monastery stayed, his senior lamas did the same and while other monasteries developed, this one didn't. However, in 1972 a new campus was built in southern India to spread the ideas and power of this monastery.

There is too much to see and admire in this magnificent Tashilhunpo Monastery. As you enter the monastery, you will find a wall overlooking the monastery, which was build by the order of the first Dalai Lama in the year 1468. On 14, 15, and 16 May of every year according to the Tibetan calendar, the wall displays images of Lord Buddha. And when looking the monastery, from entry you will see the mighty building with white walls and shining golden roof. Proceed to the West Side of the temple where the Maitreya Chapel holds the biggest statue of a sitting Maitreya Buddha, almost 86 ft in height, well decorated with gold, diamond, pearl and every other rare stone that you can think of. It is spellbinding to know that it is purely handcrafted by around 900 craftsmen and took more than 9 years in its construction. Take the wooden staircase to other higher levels of the Chapel from where you can more clearly see and appreciate the Lord's monolith. The other attraction of the monastery is the Stupa tomb of the tenth Panchen Lama. It lies east of the chapel and is covered with 614 kg of gold and innumerable number of jewels and precious stones

If you just want to explore the entire monastery, it will take around 3 hrs that is how big this temple of worship is. But if you want to completely relish this opportunity, then you must keep at least half a day in your hand. Kids might not find it very interesting because most of the attractions are rich in history and gold metal- quite far from young one's interest, but definitely the monastery generates interest in the pilgrimage tourist as well the lovers of ancient architecture and philosophy.