Jonang

Jonang in western Tsang gave its name to a distinctive tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The original monastery at Jomonang grew in the late thirteenth century around the teacher Kunpang Thukje Tsondru and became a home for meditation and the study of the Kalachakra Tantra. Its scholars and retreatants carried the Jonang tradition beyond this valley into other parts of Tibet.

In the fourteenth century Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen taught at Jonang and developed the influential philosophical interpretation known as shentong. Later, the scholar Taranatha founded the nearby monastery of Takten Damcho Ling, also called Phuntsok Ling. After his death in 1635, the rise of the Fifth Dalai Lama's government brought pressure on Jonang institutions; Takten Damcho Ling was converted to the Gelug school in the middle of the seventeenth century. Jonang teachings nevertheless continued to be transmitted in other regions.