Chaya Monastery

Brief Introduction of Chaya Monastery

Chaya Monastery is located in Chaya County, Qamdo Prefecture. It is about 97 kilometers away from the county town of Qamdo. It sits on top of Jiagang Mountain which is behind of Xigong Village of Waxi Country on south side of Maiqu River. The green pines and verdant cypresses around Chaya Monastery are green throughout the year. The scenery of Chaya Monastery is very beautiful and charming.

"Chaya" means "rock nest" in Chinese. The name of Chaya stems from the practice and living place of living Buddhas in Magong Monastery and Bugong Monastery and the fifth Luodan Xierao Zhaba Jiacuo. Hence, the name of Chaya County is also with rich religious color.

Architectures of Chaya Monastery

The practice hole of the first Living Buddha Luodan Xierao is located on the cliff of north side of Jiagang Mountain. This practice hole faces with east. The cultural relics in the hole include stone carved images of Buddha, statues of three apprentices, statue of Glory Goddess, statue of Dharma, statue of Luodan Xieran which was painted with gold powder.

On the mountain slope which is on back of Luodan Xierao Practice Hole, there are three architectures. On north side of mountain top, there was the earliest Chaya Larang. The Chaya Larang faced with south. It covered over 300 square meters. Now, the existences of Chaya Larang are rotting roofs and unpaved enclosure. The main hall of Chaya Monastery is located on southern side. The area of main hall is over 1000 square meters. It was three floors high. But it has become ruins. On eastern side, there was one meditation room which was about 60 square meters. It has been destroyed. In the center of these three architectures, there was circumambulation pagoda, small clay sculptures of Buddha and mounds of Mani stones. Now, the Chaya Monastery has been repaired.

A large part of architectures of Chaya Monastery were destroyed. The existent parts include a two floors scripture hall, a square which paved with flagstones in front of scripture hall and two floors high Tibetan style architecture with monk's dormitory on upper floor. The gate of the large scripture hall is with four gate posts. The two sides of the door are painted with images of Four Great Heavenly Kings and frescos of construction of Chaya Monastery. In the hall, there are statues of Sakyamuni and Byams-pa enshrined. The second floor is small scripture hall and monks' dormitory.

In addition, In the Kegong Village under the Jiangcuogang, there was a hall with a soul pagoda. The soul pagoda was built in the center of hall. It was destroyed in 1959. It was learned that the soul pagoda treasured Buddha's relics, a gold Buddha statue, a bell and a vajra. The hall is clay and timber construction. There are clay sculptures of Buddha in it. There are frescos of Amitayus Buddha, Sakyamuni, Tara, Dharma, Four Great Heavenly Kings, etc. These frescos almost were drawn with black lines first and colored later. These frescos have several hundreds years' history.

Now, there are over 20 monks in Chay Monastery. Except for large scripture hall and monks' dormitory, other Buddha halls are under repaired.