On the morning of April 14, 2010, the ground beneath Thrangu Monastery shook with a magnitude 6.9 earthquake. None of the monks' housing remained standing. The Mahakala shrine collapsed. Two neighboring villages were obliterated -- not a single house left intact. Somewhere between thirty and seventy monks died, though in the chaos no one could produce an exact count. Thrangu Monastery, which had stood for centuries on grasslands backed by a massive granite wall seven kilometers south of Jyekundo in the Kham region of eastern Tibet, was reduced to rubble. But this was not the first time the monastery had been destroyed, and it would not be the last time it was rebuilt.
Before the earthquake, Thrangu consisted of two buildings about 70 meters apart, known simply as the upper and lower monasteries. Visitors approached from the road past a row of eight stupas. The lower monastery housed a renovated assembly hall supported by 80 pillars, its interior glowing with gilded images of the Buddhas of the Three Times and murals depicting the previous 16 Karmapa Lamas. Images of Milarepa, a four-armed Avalokiteshvara, Padmasambhava, and Shakyamuni seated on a throne filled the prayer halls. The upper monastery, restored in 1998, contained an image of Shakyamuni Buddha flanked by the Thousand Buddhas and a figure of Vajradhara, with fine Repkong-style murals illustrating the Twelve Deeds of Shakyamuni. Outlying buildings served a practical purpose too -- villagers from the neighboring settlement stored their grain there.
About ten kilometers northwest of the monastery, up a side road, a set of rock inscriptions at a place called Bida links the region to one of Tibet's founding legends. Princess Wencheng of the Tang dynasty is said to have stayed here for a month around 640 CE, en route to Lhasa to marry King Songtsen Gampo. A large engraved image of the princess adorns a cliff behind the monastery. The Tibetan name for the site, Nampar Nangdze Lhakang, preserves the memory. Nearby stands the Mahavairocana Temple -- commonly called the Wencheng Temple -- which Thrangu's monks have traditionally cared for. Some of the rock inscriptions at Bida are claimed to be naturally produced rather than carved, adding an element of wonder to a site already thick with history. The temple was previously under the Drigung Kagyu school before passing into Thrangu's care.
The 2010 Yushu earthquake struck at local time, its epicenter in Rima village about 30 km from Jyekundo. Across the region, 2,698 people were confirmed dead, 270 went missing, and 12,135 were injured. Thrangu bore a devastating share of that toll. Reports from the scene described people digging through ruins, the assembly hall still standing but too heavily damaged to save, and the complete destruction of both villages close to the monastery. The earthquake registered 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale according to the USGS, or 7.1 on the surface wave magnitude measured by the China Earthquake Administration. The remote, rugged terrain near the Tibet Autonomous Region border made rescue efforts agonizingly slow. For a monastery that had already survived the Cultural Revolution and been rebuilt, the earthquake was another chapter in a pattern of destruction and perseverance that defines Thrangu's history.
For the reconstruction, a new site was chosen a few kilometers further south, near the Mahavairocana Temple at the entrance of a small gorge opening into the main valley. The Chinese government provided financial support, and the new Thrangu Monastery was completed in mid-August 2015. Meanwhile, the Thrangu lineage found another foothold on the opposite side of the world. On July 25, 2010 -- just three months after the earthquake -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche opened Canada's first traditional Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Richmond, British Columbia. Its assembly hall contains a four-meter gold-plated Shakyamuni Buddha filled with offerings from 108 countries, including sacred stones and pebbles, scriptures, and scrolls. The shrine hall accommodates 500 people. Two monasteries, old world and new, carrying forward a tradition that the earthquake interrupted but could not end.
Located at 32.96°N, 97.02°E, approximately 7 km south of Jyekundo (Gyegu) at roughly 3,700m elevation. Yushu Batang Airport (ZLYS) is approximately 15 km to the south at 3,890m. The monastery sits on grasslands backed by granite cliffs, near the entrance to a gorge. The Mahavairocana Temple and rock inscriptions at Bida are about 10 km to the northwest. Mountain terrain with variable weather conditions. The rebuilt monastery is located slightly south of the original site.