Daily life of a living Buddha
By Xinhua, Published: 2015-09-08 11:09:39
Living Buddha Shabdrung hosts the dharma assembly at Taklung Monastery in Lhundrup County, Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, on August 8, 2015. The Shabdrung Living Buddha, originally named Sonam Dondrup, was born on June 28, 1997, in Arza, Lhari County, Nagqu Prefecture, and was identified as the reincarnation of the 22nd Shabdrung Living Buddha in 2001. Photos: Xinhua
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Living Buddha Shabdrung wears his dharma hat before the assembly at Taklung Monastery, his traditional temple, on August 8, 2015. The dharma assembly began around 10 am at the renovated scripture hall of the hundred-year-old Taklung Monastery, ancestral temple of Taklung Kagyu.
Living Buddha Shabdrung offers blessings to a follower by touching his head after the dharma ceremony at Taklung Monastery on August 8, 2015. The reincarnation system was started by the Kagyu School in the 13th century and is now adopted by most branches of Tibetan Buddhism.
Living Buddha Shabdrung offers blessings to an elderly follower at Taklung Monastery on August 8, 2015. Most of Shabdrung’s followers are people living in pastoral areas and some even come to the monastery from North Tibet.
Living Buddha Shabdrung offers blessings to a newborn baby, the youngest of 10,000 to 20,000 people attending the dharma assembly at Taklung Monastery, on August 8, 2015.
Living Buddha Shabdrung blesses a follower’s jade bracelet at Taklung Monastery on August 8, 2015.
Living Buddha Shabdrung (left) is accompanied by a senior monk on a walk after lunch on August 8, 2015. Shabdrung had returned from the Drepung Monastery, where he studied during the summer.
Living Buddha Shabdrung (front) studies scripture with other monks on the afternoon of August 8, 2015. Shabdrung studies scripture, literature and history, and attends debates regularly. In October, 2011, the government set up the Tibet College of Buddhism in Lhasa, where Shabdrung was the only Living Buddha in the class.
Living Buddha Shabdrung takes a break after scripture class outside a chapel of the Taklung Monastery on August 8, 2015.
Living Buddha Shabdrung (third from left), together with other young monks, study Buddhist scripture with a senior monk, on August 8, 2015.
Shabdrung meditates near the Taklung Monastery on August 8, 2015.