Kathok Monastery.
Rainbow over Kathok Monastery.
Kathok Monastery in Kham Region of Eastern Tibet. Click photo for enlargementKathok Monastery
Kathok Monastery, home of one of the six primary schools of the Nyingma Sect, is the site of Guru Padmasambhava's bodhimanda (Vajra Throne or Dorje Den) and well known for the fact that over 100,000 practitioners from that monastery realized accomplishment of the Great Perfection Rainbow Body. It was founded in the Kham Region of eastern Tibet at the middle of the White Dragon Channel (Bai Long Gou) on Do-Nian Mountain in what is now Sichuan Province, China in 1159 by the great Nyingma Master Tampa Deshek (1112-1192) and rebuilt in 1656 by Rigdzin Longsal Nyingpo (1625-1682).