Densatil

Densatil stood above the Yarlung Tsangpo, a great monastic seat of the Phagdru branch of the Kagyu tradition. It grew around the hermitage established by Phagmodrupa Dorje Gyalpo in 1158. His successors made it a centre of religious authority, renowned for elaborate gilded stupas that housed the relics of its abbots.

From the late thirteenth to the fifteenth century, eight monumental reliquaries known as tashi gomang were built at Densatil. Their many tiers and images celebrated successive abbots of the ruling Lang family. The monastery's influence extended into politics: between 1349 and 1354 Jangchub Gyaltsen challenged the authority of Sakya and established Phagdru rule in central Tibet, governed from nearby Neudong. Densatil's sacred monuments embodied the close ties between the monastery and that ruling house.