The Treasury of Lives

Tibet Heritage Fund

Trode Khangsar, located south of the Barkhor, is small chapel dedicated to the controversial protector deity Dorje Shukden (also known as Dogyel Shukden). According to Larsen's Atlas, it was originally constructed around 1670 during the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama.  Andre Alexander notes in his Temples of Lhasa that the first written account of this temple is found in a 1744 survey of Geluk temples. According to lore, the spirit of the Sonam Drakpa Gyeltsen, the Drepung monk who died under mysterious circumstances, first manifested as Dorje Shukden at this site.

Many of the chapel's murals were damaged or over-painted during the Cultural Revolution, but nonetheless the chapel still maintains some fine older architectural details. For a time beginning in the 1960s, the building was given to the Tibetan Opera Troupe. In 1986, monks of Riwo Choling began restoration, residing at and acting as caretakers of the site.

Sources

Alexander, André. 2005. The Temples of Lhasa: Tibetan Buddhist Architecture from the 7th to the 21st Centuries. Chicago: Serindia Publications.

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