Kumbum Monastery located in a narrow valley about seventeen miles southwest of Xining is a Buddhist monastery part of the historical Tibetan province of Amdo, now in Qinghai province of China. It was there in the former that Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism was born in 1357 and was later founded in 1583. Its superior monastery is Drepung, immediately to the west of Lhasa.
Kumbum has four monastic colleges or faculties (dratsang). The largest is the Debate College or Faculty for Logic, the Shadupling Dratsang.[4] Most of its divisions use the textbooks of Jetsunpa Chokyi-gyeltsen (1469-1544), as at Ganden Jangtsey and Sera Jey Colleges near Lhasa. A few of the divisions follow the textbooks of Kunkyen Jamyang-zhaypa Ngawang-tsondru (1648-1722), as at Gomang College of Drepung Monastery and Labrang Monastery. The highest degrees of Geshe Rabjampa and Geshe Shayrampa are awarded at the Kumbum Monlam Prayer Festival each year.
Gyüpa Dratsang, the Tantric College, or Sangngag Dechenling Datsang was founded by Chojey Legpa-gyatso in 1649. The curriculum follows that of Gyumay Lower Tantric College of Lhasa. After study of the major texts and commentaries of the Guhyasamaja, Chakrasamvara (bDe-mchog), and Vajrabhairava ( systems, monks receive the Geshe Ngagrampa degree.
In 1711, Chuzang Lozang-tenpay-gyeltsen built a new Tantric College, Ngagpa Dratsang. In 1723, the combined Manchu and Chinese armies severely damaged the four great monasteries of the Kokonor region – Kumbum, Gonlung, Serkog and Chuzang and many monks fled. Soon afterwards, the Manchu commander asked the Twenty-first Throne Holder to convert the new Ngagpa Dratsang into a Medical College, and this was done. With the appointment of several famous doctors, the Medical College, Menpa Dratsang Sorig-dargyey-zhenpen-norbuling was opened in 1725. It became a separate college during the time of the Twenty-second Throne Holder. The doctors who are graduated receive the Menrampa degree.
The fourth college at Kumbum is the Kalachakra College, Dükhor Dratsang or Dukor Dratsang Rigden Losel-ling. It was founded in 1820 by Ngawang-shaydrub-tenpay-nyima. Monks at this college also study astrology and receive the Tsirampa degree upon completion of their education.
Before 1958, Kumbum had 3,600 monks. At present, there are 400, as the monastery was affected by the PRC policies from the late 1950s. Of these, 300 are at the Debate College and the rest are distributed evenly among the other three colleges. Traditionally, the majority of the Kumbum monks have been Tibetans from Amdo, as at Labrang Monastery. The rest have been Outer Mongolia Mongols (phyi-sog), Inner Mongolia Mongols (smad-sog, nang-sog), Kokonor Mongols (stod-sog) from the Amdo region east of Kumbum and Yellow Yugurs (yu-gur) from Gansu.
Kumbum is now a major pilgrimage for scholars and tourism site, visited by many thousands of people a year. Arjia Rinpoche is currently the Abbot of the monastery.
The Kumbum monastery is still very much a repository of Tibetan culture and art, including various sculptures, statues and religious artifacts.
(From: wikipedia)
