Serzhik

Serzhik Monastery stands beside the Tago River near Tangra Yumco, a sacred lake of the Changtang. Founded in 1405, it takes its name from the family of its founding lama and belongs to the Bön tradition. The surrounding mountains, lake and caves are part of a sacred landscape visited by pilgrims. The monastery became an important religious centre for the people of the Naktsang region. Under the Fifth Dalai Lama in the seventeenth century, Serzhik received recognition as a government monastery and was permitted to hold local people as its retainers. Its position near Tangra Yumco placed it within a network of Bön institutions and pilgrimage sites around the lake.