Shalu Monastery
monastery in Gyacoxung, Samzhubzê, Xigazê, Tibet, China
Shalu Monastery (Tibetan: ཞྭ་ལུ།, Wylie: zhwa lu) is small monastery 22 kilometres (14 mi) south of Shigatse in Tibet. Founded in 1040 by Chetsun Sherab Jungnay, for centuries it was renowned as a centre of scholarly learning and psychic training and its mural paintings were considered to be the most ancient and beautiful in Tibet. Shalu was the first of the major monasteries to be built by noble families of the Tsangpa during Tibet's great revival of Buddhism, and was an important center of the Sakya tradition.
Repair and reconstruction
Repair and reconstruction of Shalu Monastery began on May 13, 2009, according to the Chinese government Xinhua online news. "The project, one of Tibet's biggest heritage renovation projects under the 11th Five Year Plan (2006–2010), involves reinforcement of its buildings, maintenance of sewage treatment facilities and improvement of fire and flood control systems", a prefectural government official said. It is planned to spend more than 16 million RMB yuan on the project.
Further reading
Vitali, Roberto. 1990. Early Temples of Central Tibet. Serindia Publications.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Shalu Monastery” is monastery in Gyacoxung, Samzhubzê, Xigazê, Tibet, China. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shalu, Monastery and monastery, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “monastery in Gyacoxung, Samzhubzê, Xigazê, Tibet, China” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q25681. VIAF identifies the subject as 129417564. The Library of Congress control number is no2009164205. Authority coordinates are 29.127, 88.993. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1040, 2009, 2006 and 2010.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Shalu Monastery”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Shalu Monastery primary sources, Shalu Monastery archive and Shalu research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Shalu Monastery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.