Kirti Gompa (), is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery founded in 1472 and located in Ngawa, Sichuan province, in China, but traditionally part of Amdo region. Numerous other associated Kirti monasteries and nunneries are located nearby. As of March 2011, the Kirti Gompa was said to house 2,500 monks. Between 2008 and 2011, mass arrests and patriotic re-education programs by Chinese authorities have targeted the monks, reducing the population substantially to 600 monks. The wave of Tibetan self-immolations began at Kirti Gompa.
History
Kirti Gompa was founded in 1472 by Rongpa Chenakpa, a disciple of Tsongkhapa. It was established as a branch of Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Gompa (Nama Ge’erde Si) near the border with Gansu Province in 1693 but has outgrown its mother monastery.
The first Kirti Monastery founded by lama Kirti Rinpoche
was in Gyelrang. These days the two main Kirti Monasteries are in Ngawa town and Taktsang Lhamo in Zoige county, both in Ngawa prefecture, in Sichuan, China. Taktsang Lhamo was destroyed during the Cultural revolution and has now been rebuilt. There are numerous (approximately 30–40) smaller monasteries affiliated with the Kirti Monasteries spread throughout the region.
The 11th Kirti Tsenzhab Rinpoche was born in 1926 and moved to Lhasa in 1957 and accompanied the Dalai Lama into exile in India in 1959. During a period of relative freedom in China, in 1984 he visited the People's Republic as the head of a delegation from the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, meeting Chinese government representatives in Beijing and touring Tibetan regions, including Ngawa. However, after the hardening of Chinese government policy in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, relations between Beijing and Dharamsala soured, and he founded a Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala in India in April 1990, with monks coming across the border to join the new monastery. He died in 2006. The current, 12th Kirti Rinpoche, born in 1940, is the 55th lama to head the monastery.
Ngawa Kirti Gompa
Ngawa Kirti Gompa (sometimes referred to as Ge’erdengsi or Gerdeng Monastery), properly known as Kirti Kalari Gon Tashi Lhundrub, is a Gelugpa monastery on the northwestern edge of Ngawa City, the main city in Ngawa County, within the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Sichuan, China. It is located on the Tibetan plateau at an elevation of 3,200 metres (10,499 ft.)
Outside the north wall of the monastery is a towering statue of Shakyamuni Buddha. The imposing Assembly Hall or Tensi Dratsang (Dialectical College) has 120 pillars. It contains an 8-metre (26 ft) statue of Maitreya, flanked by Jowo Shakyamuni and Kirti Lobzang Chungla. There are also several other important buildings including: the Chokhang (Offering Chapel), the Lhabrang or residence of Kirti Rinpoche, the Zhungkhang (Monastic Office), the Gyupa Dratsang (Tantric College), the Menpa Dratsang (Medical College), and the Dukhor Dratsang (Kalacakra College).
Kirti Gompa is also famous for its 30-metre (98-ft) high white chorten known as the Dudul Chorten which has numerous chapels on the various floors respectively dedicated to Shakyamuni Buddha, Mahakarunika, and the Three Deities of Longevity, Tsongkhapa and Sitatapatra. It the largest Tibetan Monastery in Ngawa Town, and established the Buddhist Youth School, which was closed by Chinese authorities.
Taksang Lhamo Kirti Gompa
The Taksang Lhamo Kirti Gompa is located in the Zorge district, Sichuan Province. It has approximately 700 monks in residence.
Kirti Jepa Datsang Gompa
Kirti Jepa Datsang Gompa is located in Dharamsala, India. It was built in 1992 to house Tibetan exile monks from Tibet. Today, the monks number approximately 200 and includes Kirti Rinpoche.
Darjeeling Kirti Gompa
This is a small Kirti Monastery in Darjeeling, India with approximately 40 monks.
Ceremonies
New Year (Losar) Festivals in the first Lunar month include masked dances and the display of a large thangka. As part of the Monlam Festival there is a ceremony for "Sunning the Buddha", and a big thangka of Tsongkhapa is displayed on a huge Thangka Wall behind the monastery. This Khakhl Sham (Appliqué Tangkha Show) was first held in 1468 by the First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub (1391–1474). Originally the thangka was smaller, but after the 4th Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen (1567–1662), the size was increased more and more until it reached its present dimensions.