A Great Prayer Festival (Tib: སྨོན་ལམ་ཆེན་མོ།, monlam chenmo) dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama was held at Kirtighar Samyeling, a branch of Kirti Monastery, in Bodh Gaya, India, from 7–11 January. According to the Tibetan lunar calendar, the Dalai Lama turned 90 in 2024.
To mark the occasion, long-life and stability prayers, known as shabten (Tib: ཞབས་བརྟན།), were performed alongside traditional Gelug prayers. Although His Holiness was invited three times, the event in Bodh Gaya coincided with his commitments at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Karnataka, southern India. Representatives from the Gaden Phodrang (Tib: དགའ་ལྡན་ཕོ་བྲང་།), the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, attended the ceremony at Kirtighar Samyeling on his behalf.
The program at Kirtighar Samyeling spanned four days, with prayers from 6:30 a.m.–8 p.m., morning and afternoon pujas, and morning and evening debates (Tib:རྩོད་པ།, tsopa). Additionally, three days of teachings were delivered by the 104th Gaden Tripa, Jetsun Lobsang Tenzin Pelsangpo, focusing on the Jātakas, or the tales Buddha’s previous lives (Tib:ཐུབ་པའི་སྐྱེས་རབས།, thub pe kyerab).
On the fifth day, 11 January, monks and laypeople gathered to hold a long-life puja for His Eminence the 11th Kirti Rinpoche, followed by shabten prayers for the Dalai Lama. A golden gift of gratitude was offered to His Holiness, represented by a delegate from the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The ceremony was also attended by the Gaden Tripa and the former Kalon Tripa (Tib: བཀའ་བློན་ཁྲི་པ།), Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, the prime minister of the Central Tibetan Administration, who also received a letter of gratitude for their support of Kirti Monastery. The event concluded with dedication prayers and a celebratory gathering for the monks and laypeople.
The occasion also saw three new books launched at Kirtighar Samyeling on 12 January: a volume detailing the reasons behind Kirti Monastery’s long-life ceremony for the Dalai Lama; a book featuring photographs taken by Kirti Rinpoche, reflecting his passion for photography; and a book on the first scholars’ conference on Jé Tsongkhapa’s Essence of True Eloquence (Tib: དྲང་ངེས་ལེགས་བཤད་སྙིང་པོ།, Drange Legshe Nyingpo), organized by Kirti Monastery in Bodh Gaya in 2018.
At that time, Kirtighar Samyeling was unfinished, and the conference was held in tents. During the 2018 event, the Dalai Lama laid the foundation stone for the future Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Nalanda Academy in Bodh Gaya, a project of Kirti Monastery. His Holiness added a block carved with a double vajra to an existing wall, recited prayers for auspiciousness, and delivered a speech.**
A similar conference on Je Tsongkhapa’s Essence of True Eloquence, was held in 2016, bringing together scholars from all Tibetan Buddhist and Bon traditions at Taktsang Lhamo, Kirti Rinpoche’s home monastery in Tibet.
Kirti Monastery (Tib: ཀིརྟི་དགོན་པ།) was founded in 1472 in Ngawa, in the traditional Tibetan region of Amdo, by Rongpa Chenakpa, a disciple of the renowned Tibetan Buddhist philosopher Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.
The current head of the Kirti lineage is His Eminence the 11th Kirti Rinpoche, Lobsang Tenzin Jigme Yeshe Gyamtso. Born in Thewo Takmoe Gang in Amdo in 1942, he received his spiritual training in Tibet and, following the Chinese invasion, fled with the Dalai Lama to India in 1959.
Kirti Rinpoche established the Kirti Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Kirti Jepa Dratsang (Tib: ཀིརྟིའི་བྱེས་པ་གྲྭ་ཚང་།) in Dharamsala in 1992, and founded the Kirti Charitable Society, Kirti Getsa Tsokpa (Tib: ཀིརྟིའི་དགེ་རྩ་ཚོགས་པ།) in 2008.
Kirti Monastery preserves the tradition of the monlam chenmo, a grand prayer festival established in 1409 by Je Tsongkhapa in Lhasa. As Tibet’s most significant religious festival, it traditionally brought together thousands of monks from the three major monasteries—Drepung, Sera, and Gaden—to perform religious rituals at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. Today, great prayer festivals are upheld by Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in exile, primarily in Bodh Gaya, where the historical Buddha attained enlightenment.
* Gaden Tripa is a title for the supreme head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The 104th Gaden Tripa, Jetsun Lobsang Tenzin Pelsangpo recently requested to step down from his position. The Dalai Lama appointed His Eminence Sharpa Choeje Rinpoche Jetsun Lobsang Dorjee Pelsangpo as the 105th Gaden Tripa on 28 November 2024.
** First Conference on Tsongkhapa’s ‘Essence of True Eloquence’ (His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet)
See more
Kirti Monastery (Tibetan Only)
Related news reports from BDG
7th Moenlam Chenmo held at Punakha in Bhutan
12th Tai Situ Rinpoche Holds Historic “Red Crown” Kagyu Monlam Chenmo in Bodh Gaya
New Year Long-Life Prayers for the Dalai Lama Held in Bodh Gaya
32nd Nyingma Monlam Chenmo Underway in Bodh Gaya with Reduced Attendance Due to COVID-19 Restrictions
His Holiness the Karmapa to Preside over Kagyu Monlam Prayer Festival in New York
