Located 1 km to the west of Xiahe County, daxiahe river forms a basinbetween Longshan and Fengshan. The Tibetan people call it a cornucopia, andLabrang temple is located on the cornucopia. Together with the DrepungMonastery, Sera Monastery, Gandan monastery, tashilumbu monastery and talmonastery in Qinghai, it is called the six major monasteries of the Gelug Sect(yellow sect) of Lamaism in China. Labrang is the transliteration of Tibetan"lazhang", which means the place where the Buddhist palace is located.
The temple was built in 1709, the 48th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxiof the Qing Dynasty. There are 18 magnificent Buddhist temples, more than 10000monk houses, numerous buildings and red walls, with extraordinary momentum.Among them, the most famous is the six ZHACANG. Zacang, which means college inTibetan. The six chacangs are the six Buddhist Colleges: Wensi College ofxiuxianzong, upper college and lower College of xumizong, Shilun College ofastronomy, Medical College of medicine and xijingang College of law. Among them,Wensi college is the center of the whole temple, with three main parts: fronthall, main hall and back hall. The front hall is for the statue of Kingsongzangan of Tibet, and the main hall is hung with a plaque of "huijue Temple",which was granted by Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty. The main hall, with 11bays, is 100 meters wide and 75 meters deep. It has 140 columns and can hold4000 lamas chanting sutras at the same time. The hall is decorated with colorfulbanners, more than 100 butter lamps and cigarettes. It is a Buddhist atmosphere.There are also two pulpits, a sutra house and a printing house in the temple,with tens of thousands of cultural relics and more than 60000 Tibetanclassics.
There are 18 "Lacan" in Labrang temple. "LAKANG" (Buddhist temple) is themeeting place for lamas to chant scriptures. Among them, Shouxi temple is thelargest, with 6 floors and a height of more than 20 meters. Inside the hall,there are about 15 meters high Buddha statues of Sakyamuni. The roof issurrounded by golden dragons and the wall is surrounded by silver lions. It iswell deserved to call Labrang temple a higher institution of TibetanBuddhism.