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Kvatakhevi is a medieval Georgian Orthodox monastery in Shida Kartli, Georgia.
It dates to the 12th-13th century. The building has two portals, one to the south and one to the west. The façades are covered with finely hewn white stone squares. Historically, Kvatakhevi was also a literary center where several manuscripts were copied. It also possessed a treasure with many artifacts of medieval Georgian jewelry.
The monastery was significantly damaged during Timur's invasions of Georgia in the 14th century, but was subsequently repaired, more completely under the patronage of Prince Ivane Tarkhan-Mouravi in 1854. A belfry was added in 1872.
The Church of the Monastery in Riddagshausen, Brunswick.
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The Church in 'normal' colors.
Varlaam Monastery is one of the six main monasteries of Meteora in Kalambaka, Greece. It is one of, if not, the most breathtaking place I've ever been (the six monasteries as a whole, not Varlaam in particular.)
By sheer luck, I wandered into Varlaam in between tour groups (it can be very crowded depending on when you are there) and a monk happened to come into the church and gave me and a family from California a personal tour of the church. The icons are from floor to ceiling and so overwhelm the senses that you can miss tons of stuff. This extremely kind and gentle monk pointed out many features we would've otherwise missed.
Labrang Monastery (Tibetan: བླ་བྲང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འཁྱིལ་, Wylie: bla-brang bkra-shis-'khyil) is one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Its formal name is Genden Shédrup Dargyé Trashi Gyésu khyilwé Ling (Tibetan: དགེ་ལྡན་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་དར་རྒྱས་བཀྲ་ཤིས་གྱས་སུ་འཁྱིལ་བའི་གླིང༌།, Wylie: dge ldan bshad sgrub dar rgyas bkra shis gyas su 'khyil ba'i gling).
Labrang is located in Xiahe County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu, in the traditional Tibetan area of Amdo. Labrang Monastery is home to the largest number of monks outside the Tibet Autonomous Region. Xiahe is about four hours by car from the provincial capital Lanzhou.
In the early part of the 20th century, Labrang was by far the largest and most influential monastery in Amdo. It is located on the Daxia River, a tributary of the Yellow River.
The monastery was founded in 1709 by the first Jamyang Zhépa, Ngawang Tsöndrü.It is Tibetan Buddhism's most important monastery town outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Labrang Monastery is situated at the strategic intersection of two major Asian cultures—Tibetan and Mongolian — and was one of the largest Buddhist monastic universities. In the early 20th century, it housed several thousand monks. Labrang was also a gathering point for numerous annual religious festivals and was the seat of a Tibetan power base that strove to maintain regional autonomy through the shifting alliances and bloody conflicts that took place between 1700 and 1950.[5]
In April 1985 the Assembly Hall burned down. It was replaced and the new building was consecrated in 1990
The monastery complex dominates the western part of the village. The white walls and gilded roofs feature a blend of Tibetan and Indian Vihara architectural styles. The monastery contains 18 halls, six institutes of learning, a gilded stupa, a sutra debate area, and houses nearly 60,000 sutras.
At its height the monastery housed 4,000 monks. Like so many religious institutions, it suffered during the Cultural Revolution; and the monks were sent to their villages to work. After it was reopened in 1980, many of the monks returned; but the government restricted enrolment to around 1,500.[7]
It has a Buddhist museum with a large collection of Buddha statues, sutras and murals. In addition, a large amount of Tibetan language books, including books on history is available for purchase, together with medicines, calendars, music and art objects.
There used to be a great gold-painted statue of the Buddha, more than 50 feet high, which was surrounded by rows of surrounding Buddhas in niches.[8]
The monastery today is an important place for Buddhist ceremonies and activities. From January 4 to 17 and June 26, to July 15, (these dates may change according to the lunar calendar), the great Buddhist ceremony will be held with Buddha-unfolding, sutra enchanting, praying, sutra debates, etc.
View from our hotel balconey to the Gandan Sumtseling Monastery close to Zhongdian in Shangri-La County (香格里拉县) in Yunnan (China).
This monastery is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan province and is sometimes referred to as the Little Potala Palace. Built in 1679, it was extensively damaged in the Cultural Revolution and subsequently rebuilt in 1983. At its peak the monastery contained accommodation for 2000 monks but currently accommodates 700 monks in 200 associated houses.
Oddly there was no thunder and lightning as I stepping into the monastery at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit.
Labrang Monastery (Tibetan: བླ་བྲང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འཁྱིལ་, Wylie: bla-brang bkra-shis-'khyil) is one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Its formal name is Genden Shédrup Dargyé Trashi Gyésu khyilwé Ling (Tibetan: དགེ་ལྡན་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་དར་རྒྱས་བཀྲ་ཤིས་གྱས་སུ་འཁྱིལ་བའི་གླིང༌།, Wylie: dge ldan bshad sgrub dar rgyas bkra shis gyas su 'khyil ba'i gling).
Labrang is located in Xiahe County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu, in the traditional Tibetan area of Amdo. Labrang Monastery is home to the largest number of monks outside the Tibet Autonomous Region. Xiahe is about four hours by car from the provincial capital Lanzhou.
In the early part of the 20th century, Labrang was by far the largest and most influential monastery in Amdo. It is located on the Daxia River, a tributary of the Yellow River.
The monastery was founded in 1709 by the first Jamyang Zhépa, Ngawang Tsöndrü.It is Tibetan Buddhism's most important monastery town outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Labrang Monastery is situated at the strategic intersection of two major Asian cultures—Tibetan and Mongolian — and was one of the largest Buddhist monastic universities. In the early 20th century, it housed several thousand monks. Labrang was also a gathering point for numerous annual religious festivals and was the seat of a Tibetan power base that strove to maintain regional autonomy through the shifting alliances and bloody conflicts that took place between 1700 and 1950.[5]
In April 1985 the Assembly Hall burned down. It was replaced and the new building was consecrated in 1990
The monastery complex dominates the western part of the village. The white walls and gilded roofs feature a blend of Tibetan and Indian Vihara architectural styles. The monastery contains 18 halls, six institutes of learning, a gilded stupa, a sutra debate area, and houses nearly 60,000 sutras.
At its height the monastery housed 4,000 monks. Like so many religious institutions, it suffered during the Cultural Revolution; and the monks were sent to their villages to work. After it was reopened in 1980, many of the monks returned; but the government restricted enrolment to around 1,500.[7]
It has a Buddhist museum with a large collection of Buddha statues, sutras and murals. In addition, a large amount of Tibetan language books, including books on history is available for purchase, together with medicines, calendars, music and art objects.
There used to be a great gold-painted statue of the Buddha, more than 50 feet high, which was surrounded by rows of surrounding Buddhas in niches.[8]
The monastery today is an important place for Buddhist ceremonies and activities. From January 4 to 17 and June 26, to July 15, (these dates may change according to the lunar calendar), the great Buddhist ceremony will be held with Buddha-unfolding, sutra enchanting, praying, sutra debates, etc.
The Cocos Monastery near Niculitel, Jud. Tulcea, Romania. This monastery houses the bones of four Christian martyrs (Zotikos, Attalos, Kamasis and Phillipos), the oldest found in Europe.
It is not known exactly when Monks first came to Montserrat and began to build a Monastery. However, it is believed that in the ninth century four of the Chapels were built on Montserrat Mountain (St Mary's, St. Iscle's, St.Peter's and St. Martin's). It is believed that these were inhabited by hermit Monks who lived a solitary life of prayer. Today only one of these Chapels is still standing - St.Iscle. If you would like to visit St.Iscle Chapel, it is located in the Monastery garden (see our Montserrat Map page for how to find it).
In 1025 the Abbot of Ripoli and Bishop of Vic, Oliba, officially founded the Monastery of Montserrat. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a Romanesque church was built in Montserrat containing a carving of the image of the Mother of God. Over this period pilgrims began to come to Montserrat.
Throughout the following centuries Montserrat's importance grew: in 1223 there is the first account of a boy's choir at Montserrat, in 1409 the Monastery became an independent abbey and in 1490 Montserrat's printing press was installed. In 1493 the Monastery's word was spread even further when one of the hermits from Montserrat - Bernal Boil - went on a voyage to America with Christopher Columbus. One of the islands in the Antilles was named after Montserrat and this began the spread of the worship of the Mother of God of Montserrat in the Americas.
In the 18th century Montserrat hit some troubling times. In 1811 - 1812 Montserrat was destroyed by Napoleon's army. Then in 1835 the Land Acts meant that the Monastery lost all of its property and all but one Monk left the Monastery. However, in 1844 the Monks returned to Montserrat and in 1858 the reconstruction of Montserrat began.
Again, in the nineteenth century, the Monks experienced turbulent times during the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939). During this period the Monks were forced to leave the Monastery. Over the period of the war 23 Monks were killed. Fortunately, the autonomous government of Catalonia managed to save Montserrat and free it from looting and destruction. After the war the Monks returned and continued with the reconstruction of the Monastery.
In 1947 there was the Celebration of the Enthronement of the Image of the Mother of God (The Black Madonna). Since this time the Monastery has gone from strength to strength. The new museum has been added, in 1982 Pope John Paul II visited Montserrat, the Basilica has been restored and the entire complex has been built to cater for the large number of pilgrims who come to Montserrat each year