Karma Densa

Karma Densa, also known as Karma Gon, was a monastery of the Karma Kagyu tradition in northeastern Kham. Founded by the First Karmapa in the twelfth century, it became an important seat of religious instruction. Chokyi Gyeltsen, later remembered as the First Tai Situ, was born near the monastery in 1377. The Fifth Karmapa appointed him its principal instructor, and the Situ incarnation line subsequently developed from his discipleship and succession.

Chokyi Gyeltsen received an imperial religious title in 1413, while the title Situ itself was associated with a Ming envoy and a local political office. The monastery's influence thus involved both teaching and relationships with external patrons. Later Situ incarnations maintained the institution; the Fourth Situ enlarged its monastic community in the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth century, the Eighth Situ moved the line's principal seat to Pelpung near Derge. Karma Densa remained an older centre within this wider network of monasteries, teachers and reincarnate lineages.