Dege Parkhang in Kham; The Treasury of Tibetan Culture & Arts
Dege Parkhang (Sutra-Printing House), also called Dege Auspicious and Wisdom-Gathering House, whose full Multi- Auspicious Gate of the Great Dharma Stack-Room of Dege Sutra-Printing House of Tibetan Cultural Treasures, is located in Dege County on the east bank of the Drichu (Yanzi)River northwest of the Ganze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province, built in1685 by Chokyi Tenpa Tsering, the 12th headman of Dege. More than 200000 blocks of Buddhist scriptures, historical, literature and art, medical, astronomical, and calendar-arithmetical book edition in Tibetan are kept in the house. The Printing house is the largest of the three big Sutra-printing houses in Tibet. (Lhasa Sutra-printing House in Lhasa, Labrang Parkhang: print House in Gansu, Amdo. and Dege Parkhang in Sichuan, Kham). It was designated as a major unit of cultural relics under provincial protection in 1980 and as a major unit under state protection in 1996. Dege, meaning "land of benevolence" in Tibetan, is derived from the "ten benevolences of the 4 orders" of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dege clan and the toponym of Dege both began to appear in the early period of the Yuan Dynasty and the year 1913 saw the establishment of Dege County. It is the seat of Dege County and was once the center of the kingdom of Dege, one of the largest and most important of the regional kingdoms in Kham. For more information read the official site for Dege Parkhang. www.degeparkhang.org
