Puntsokling Monastery was founded by Taranatha (1575-1634), Zanabazar's previous incarnation. Zanabazar visited here during his first trip to Tibet in 1649-50 and perhaps during his second trip to Tibet in 1655.

Taranatha was a prolific writer. Perhaps his best known book is the History of Buddhism in India. A translation of his Origins of the Tantra of the Bodhisattva Tara, or as it is also called, The Golden Rosary , can be found in Martin Willson's In Praise of Tara: Songs to the Saviouress: Source Texts from India and Tibet on Buddhism's Great Goddess.

Puntsokling Monastery, founded in 1614, is located in the Tsangpo Valley about 200 miles west of Lhasa.

Punksokling Monastey

Main temple at Punksokling

Shambhala Temple with ruins above

View of ruins, looking up the Tsangpo Valley

Ruins of the upper Monastery, destroyed by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution

The Jonang Kumbum, located about three kilometers up a side valley at the site of the old Jonang Monastery. It is considerably older than the much more well-known Kumbum at Gyantse.

Meditation retreat and two meditation caves on the hillside above the Kumbum. Accordings to nuns who now live here Taranatha himself did retreats here.