Reting Monastery lies in a narrow valley of the Reting Tsangpo, a tributary of the Kyichu, about one hundred and eighty kilometres north of Lhasa in Lhunzhub county. It was founded in 1056 by Dromton, the principal disciple of Atisha, and became the mother monastery of the Kadam school, which shaped Tibetan monastic reform and later fed into the Gelug tradition. In the twentieth century it was the seat of the Reting regents, who governed Tibet during the minority of the fourteenth Dalai Lama, which gave the place a political weight out of proportion to its size.
The cypress grove
The monastery's most distinctive feature is its setting: a grove of very old Himalayan cypress trees, some of them said to be a thousand years old, growing on the slopes around and within the monastic enclosure. The trees are the reason the valley is protected, and the composition of cypress, rock and whitewashed buildings is unlike anything else in the Lhasa region. Walking among them, with prayer flags strung between the trunks and the river running below, is the main reason visitors come this far north.
The monastery
The complex was badly damaged in the twentieth century and has been progressively rebuilt, so the present halls are a mixture of surviving old fabric and new construction in traditional form. The main assembly hall holds images of Atisha and of the Kadam lineage, and there are chapels, stupas and the living quarters of the monks, who follow the Gelug tradition today. The monastery has a resident community of modest size, and the calendar includes festivals that draw pilgrims from the surrounding valleys, when the site is busy and the local families set up stalls along the approach.
Practical notes
Foreign visitors to Tibet travel on a permit and with a guide, and Reting is usually visited as a long day trip from Lhasa or as a stop on a route north towards Namtso, since the two lie in the same general direction. The drive from Lhasa takes about four hours on a road that climbs over high passes; there is no public transport and no accommodation at the monastery, so a car and driver are essential and a packed lunch is sensible. The altitude at the monastery is around four thousand two hundred metres, so take it slowly. Go in summer or early autumn, when the valley is green and the road is clear.
