Lhagang

Lhagang, known in Chinese as Tagong, is a monastery and pilgrimage place among the high grasslands of Kham. Tradition tells that a Jowo image of the Buddha travelling with Princess Wencheng would go no farther on its journey to Lhasa, and that a temple was established here to house it. The story made Lhagang a revered destination for pilgrims in eastern Tibet. The monastery's religious affiliation changed over the centuries. It became a Karma Kagyu institution in the eleventh century and passed to the Sakya school in the thirteenth. Its sacred image and its connection with Lhasa helped give this highland foundation a place in the wider religious world of Tibet.