Taklung

Taklung is a monastery north of Lhasa and the original seat of the Taklung Kagyu tradition. Taklung Thangpa Tashi Pal founded it in 1180 on a site associated with the earlier Kadampa teacher Potowa. The monastery's teachers established a lineage of study and practice that spread beyond central Tibet. In 1276 Sangye Ön founded Riwoche in Kham, creating a second major seat of the tradition. Taklung became known as the upper branch and Riwoche as the lower branch, linking communities in central and eastern Tibet through a shared religious inheritance.