Kumbum (also known as Ta'er) Monastery is located in a narrow valley about seventeen miles southwest of Xining. It was here that Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism was born in 1357. According to one tradition, Tsongkhapa's father took the afterbirth and it buried here, and soon a sandalwood tree grew on the spot. Another version has it that the tree grew up where drops of blood from Tsongkhapa's umbilical cord had fallen on the ground. In any case this tree became known as the "Tree of Great Merit." The leaves and the bark of this tree were reputed to bear impressions of the Buddha's face and various mystic syllables and its blossoms were said to give off a peculiarly pleasing scent. Two Catholic missionaries, the Abbes Huc and Gabet who arrived here in the 1840s when the tree was still living were fully prepared to dismiss "The Tree of Great Merit" as just another fanciful legend. "We were filled with an absolute consternation of astonishment," Huc noted in his famous book Travels in Tartary, "at finding that, in point of fact, there were upon each of the leaves well-formed Tibetan characters . . . Our first impression was a suspicion of fraud on the part of the lamas; but after a minute examination of every detail, we could not discover the least deception." Section of this tree are now preserved in a stupa in the Great Golden Temple (see below).

Apparently Tsongkhapa's mother had a chorten built on the site of his birthplace, and a monastery grew up around this. In the 1580s the third Dalai Lama built a fence around the "Tree of Great Merit" and established a monastic college here, thus some sources claim that it was he who founded Kumbum, although there appears to have been a monastery or at least a temple here before since at least the 1360s. The Seventh Dalai Lama (1708-1757) was taken to Kumbum in 1716 and spent several years here before moving to Lhasa. The thirteen Dalai Lama and fourteenth Dalai Lamas also spent time here. Kumbum was a standard stop on the old Mongolia-Tibet caravan route from Ulaan Baatar to Lhasa. Zanabazar, the first Bogd Gegen of Mongolia stopped here on his first trip to Tibet in 1649 and probably on his second trip to Tibet in 1655. Kumbum is now a major pilgrimage and tourism site, visited by thousands if not tens of thousands of people a year.

Chortens in the front courtyard of Kumbum

The so-called Eight-Buddha Stupa

Main street running through Kumbum

The Longevity Temple. Contains a rock on which Tsongkhapa's mother reputedly rested while she was pregnant.

Grounds of Kumbum

Inner Courtyard

The Grand Golden Temple, which contains a stupa containing sections of the "Tree of Great Merit."

Another views of the Grand Golden Temple

Another views of the Grand Golden Temple

Environs of Kumbum

Unnamed Temple, apparently not open to the public

The so-called Kalachakra Temple, although there is now nothing inside referring to the Kalachakra, not even a Kalachakra mandala