SAKYA MONASTERY

This monastery was one of the most important in Tibet before the Cultural Revolution, during which it was severely affected as many other religious sanctuaries by China. The Chinese nickname him today the «second Dunhuang», for its multitude of statues and its architecture in the cliff. Built in 1073, the monastery originally had more than forty buildings and radiated on the region. Today there is only the southern part of the monastery. The latter dates from 1268, and is the defensive part: its guet towers and heavy walls, on which we can now walk, protected the monastery of external intrusions. Several chapels and prayer rooms are still housed in the south monastery and frequented by the monks of the temple. The North Monastery has little more than a pile of ruins.