Tibet Monastery Tour – Golden Roof of the Monasteries

The golden roof refers to the golden tiles roof of the monasteries in Tibet. The golden tiles would always been used on the roof of the main shrine, Buddha hall and the pogoda tower in the monasteries. Tourists making a Tibet monastery tour would have the chance to witness various luxury specially manufactured golden roof of different monasteries.

Tibet Monastery Tour – Brief Introduction of Golden Roof of the Monasteries

The golden roof is not only acted as the cover tiles of monasteries but also a special architectural decoration for the Tibet monasteries. The golden tiles are quite similar to the ordinary tiles with overhanging eaves. The hold-plated copper tiles could always make the monasteries looked more solemn and magnificent. The golden roof would always be decorated with various sculptures, such as the Dharma-cakra, clouds, religious bell, religious scriptures and some other religion-related things. The lamas in the monasteries would always hang some bells on the golden roof. When the wind comes, the bell would present a pleasant sound.

Golden roof plays important role in the decoration of the Tibetan palaces, monasteries, pagodas and some other superior constructions. It is one of the most characteristic factors of the Tibetan architectural art. It always makes the main building of the complex more outstanding. Tourists making a Tibet monastery tour would find that most of the large monasteries on Tibet Plateau are decorated with golden roofs. The golden roofs make the construction complex of the monasteries more luxury and magnificent.

The size of the golden roof varies from monastery to monastery. The bigger ones always cover an area of more than 200 square meters with a height of 5 meters while the smaller ones only cover an area of 20 square meters with a height of 2 meters. The size of the golden roof always symbols the status of monastery or the owner of the building since there is distinct social estate system and specific seniority rule for the construction of golden roof.

Tibet Monastery Tour – History of Golden Roof of the Monasteries

Tibet golden roof has a long history. There are two statements of the source of golden roof: the first one goes that the golden roof are created by Tibetans while the second one states that the golden roof was introduced from India. With the economical development of Tibet and improvement of Tibetan architectural art, Tibet constructed about 5000 monasteries of Bon and Tibetan Buddhism between the 10th century and 19th century. There are more than 100 monasteries are decorated with golden roof among the 5000 monasteries.

Tourists making a Tibet monastery tour would have the chance to witness the luxury golden roof of Jokhang Temple, Potala Palaces, Sakya Monastery, Sera Monastery, Drepung Monastery, Ganden Monastery, Tashilhunpo Monastery and Norbu Lingka.