Ganden Monastery is lo­cated on Wangbur Moun­tain, which is more than 12,792 feet high, in Tagtse County, 29 miles from Lhasa. Built in 1409 by Tsong Khapa, the founder of Gelugpa (a branch of Ti­betan Buddhism known as the Yellow Hat Sect, as its disciples wear yellow hats), it is the largest Gelugpa monastery as well as one of the three great monasteries in Lhasa—the other two being Sera and Drepung. At the height of its power and splendor, the monastery covered an area of about 37 acres, almost three times as large as Potala Palace.

The monastery comprises over 50 structures, among which Coqen Hall and Tri Thok Khang are the best known. Coqen Hall, which serves as the main assembly space, is large enough to hold over 3,000 lamas. Tri Thok Khang is one of the earliest Buddha halls in the Ganden Monastery and once served as the bedchamber of Tsong Khapa and other tripas. In 1419 Tsong Khapa passed away in this hall, and in the following year his disciples built a silver pagoda for him here. Later on, the thirteenth Dalai Lama covered the pa­goda with pure gold. From then on, each time a tripa died, a silver pagoda would be built in his honor, so that by the time Tibet was liber­ated, 95 pagodas had been constructed. Besides these 95 holy stupas, the monas­tery also houses many other rare and well-preserved cul­tural relics.