The Tuptin Monastery is located in Lab Township, Tridu County, the Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. The monastery has a history of 700 years.

In the early days, this place belonged to the indigenous Bon religion, referred to as the Arkrziton Temple. In 810 AD, when the Tibetan King Trisong Detsen invited Guru Padmasambhava to Tibet, Guru Rinpoche came here and built the Ga White Stupa, later he personally blessed and consecrated it, thus transforming the temple to a Buddhist monastery. Till today, the ruins of the former temple can still be seen on the hillside behind the Tuptin Monastery.

The Tuptin Monastery

Later, in 1260 AD, Drogön Chogyal Phagpa, the fifth leader of the Sakya school as well as the Imperial Preceptor of the Yuan dynasty recognized by Emperor Kublai Khan himself, passed by here on his way to the capital city. Seeing the monastery being dilapidated, he rebuilt it and from then on, it became a monastery of a Sakya sect – the Rziton Tuptin Monastery.

It is said that the Dharmapala of the Imperial Preceptor is Black Buza. The statue of Black Buza, which was made of various precious medicinal materials, sarira, and nectar pills, was every effective to the wishes. At that time, Master Phagpa enshrined it in the Dharmapala Hall at the Yuan Royal Palace. Before departure from the Han land back to Tibet, Master Phagpa warned the Emperor, “No matter what sound you hear, do not open the box of Dharmapala.”

After Master Phagpa left the palace, various strange noise came out of the box. An ancient minister couldn’t resist his curiosity and opened the box. Much to his surprise, there was nothing but a bird, jumping out from the box and heading west.

At that time, Master Phagpa was stopping by the Tuptin Monastery. He looked up and saw a bird flying towards him. It became bigger and bigger, then shrank when it reached the master’s side, and finally flew into the box in which the master kept his ritual instruments. The master opened the box and saw that it was the Black Buza statue which was supposed to be enshrined in the royal palace.

The master entered meditation and observed the profound karmic connections between the Black Buza Dharmapala and the Tuptin Monastery. So, the master bestowed the Black Buza to the monastery as the most important Dharma Guardian. He also donated a statue of Sakyamuni Buddha which he carried with him. Like the Buddha statue in the Ngor Monastery, this Buddha statue had the same body temperature to the birds. There is a saying that if you put a piece of butter on the statue’s chest, it would slowly melt. That’s the reason why it is called “the Buddha statue with the flying bird’s temperature.” Due to this cause, the Arkrziton Temple was changed to “the Tuptin Monastery,” in which “Tuptin” means the place where all the Buddhas profess and teach.

During the period of 1958-1977, the entire monastery was destroyed by the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, leaving nothing but ruins. In 1980, after the implementation of the new religion policy, as predicted by Guru Padmasambhava, “There is a famous Rinchen in the Kham region, Tantra promotion will flourish where the white stupa erects.”

In 1988, under the auspices by Chöying Dorje Rinpoche, the Tuptin Monastery was rebuilt.