Tsurphu Monastery

Tsurphu Monastery
Tibetan transcription(s) Tibetan: མཚུར་ཕུ་དགོན་པ Wylie transliteration: mtshur phu dgon pa Pronunciation in IPA: [[tsʰuːpʰu]] THL: Tsurphu Gömpa Chinese transcription(s) Simplified: 楚布寺 Pinyin: Chǔbù Sì
Tsurphu Monastery
Religion
Affiliation	Tibetan Buddhism
Sect	Kagyu
Location
Location	Gurum, Doilungdêqên District, Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region
Country	China
Location within Tibet Autonomous Region
Geographic coordinates	29°43′36″N 90°34′30″E / 29.72667°N 90.57500°E / 29.72667; 90.57500
Architecture
Founder	Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama
Date established	1159; 865 years ago (1159)

Tsurphu Monastery (Tibetan: མཚུར་ཕུ་དགོན་པ) or Tölung Tsurphu (Tibetan: སྟོད་ལུང་མཚུར་ཕུ, "Tsurphu of Tölong") is a gompa which serves as the traditional seat of the Karmapa, the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. It is located in Gurum in Doilungdêqên District, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, 70 kilometres (43 mi) from Lhasa.

The monastery is about 4,300 metres (14,100 ft) above sea level. It was built in the middle of the valley facing south with high mountains surrounding the complex.

Tsurphu is a 300-square-meter (3,200 sq ft) complex with walls up to 4 meters (13 ft) thick. The gompa, the traditional seat of the Karmapa lamas, is about 28 kilometres (17 mi) up the Dowo Lung Valley on the north side of the river. The original walls of the main building were up to 4 meters thick and 300 meters on each side (90,000 square meters or 970,000 square feet). The monks' residences were on the eastern side.