The Shaolin Monastery, also known as the Shaolin Temple, is a Chan ("Zen") Buddhist temple in Dengfeng County, Henan Province, China. Believed to have been founded in the 5th century CE, the Shaolin Temple is the main temple of the Shaolin school of Buddhism to this day.
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an oratory, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may also include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community. These may include a hospice, a school, and a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge, or a brewery.
The Cistercians officially the Order of Cistercians, are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. They are also known as Bernardines, after the highly influential St. Bernard of Clairvaux ; or as White Monks, in reference to the colour of the "cuccula" or white choir robe worn by the Cistercians over their habits, as opposed to the black cuccula worn by Benedictine monks.
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, monks or nuns; or the building used by the community, particularly in the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, and the Anglican Communion.
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in northeastern Greece and an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. It is governed as an autonomous polity within the Greek Republic. Mount Athos is home to 20 monasteries under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis – are members of a contemplative Order of nuns in the Catholic Church. The Poor Clares were the second Franciscan Order to be established. Founded by Saints Clare of Assisi and Francis of Assisi on Palm Sunday in the year 1212, they were organized after the Order of Friars Minor, and before the Third Order of Saint Francis. As of 2011 there were over 20,000 Poor Clare nuns in over 75 countries throughout the world. They follow several different observances and are organized into federations.
The Camaldolese monks and nuns are two different, but related, monastic communities that trace their lineage to the monastic movement begun by Saint Romuald.
Saint Catherine's Monastery, officially "Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai", lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai, near the town of Saint Catherine, Egypt. The monastery is controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Khardung La is a mountain pass in the Ladakh region of the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The local pronunciation is "Khardong La" or "Khardzong La" but, as with most names in Ladakh, the romanised spelling varies.
Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, founded in 1447 by the 1st Dalai Lama, is a historic and culturally important monastery in Shigatse, the second-largest city in Tibet.
The Saint Stepanos Monastery, also known in Armenian as Maghardavank (Մաղարդավանք), is an Armenian monastery located about 15 km northwest of the city of Julfa in the province of East Azarbaijan, northwestern Iran. It is situated in a deep canyon along the Araxes, on the Iranian side of the border between Iran and Nakhchivan. It was originally built in the ninth century, and was rebuilt during the Safavid era, after being damaged through wars and earthquakes.
Dzogchen Monastery is one of the six great monasteries of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It is located in Kham within modern day Dêgê County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China.
Ladakh, a word which means "land of high passes", is a region in the Northern India sandwiched between the Karakoram mountain range to the north and the Himalayas to the south and is situated at the height of 11,400 ft. The Indian portion of Ladakh is composed of the Leh and Kargil districts. The Leh district is the second largest district of India.
Tegar, also known as Tiggar, is a high-altitude village in the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is located in the Nubra tehsil, in the Nubra Valley of Ladakh region.
The Order of Saint Basil the Great also known as the Basilian Order of Saint Josaphat is a Ukrainian/Belarusian monastic religious order of the Greek Catholic Churches that is present in many countries and that has its Mother House in Rome. The order received approbation on August 20, 1631 and was based at the Holy Trinity monastery in Vilnius. Its monks, brothers, and priests work primarily with Ukrainian Catholics and are also present in other Greek-Catholic churches in central and eastern Europe.
Diskit Monastery also known as Deskit Gompa or Diskit Gompa is the oldest and largest Buddhist monastery (gompa) in the Nubra Valley of Ladakh, northern India.
Rato Dratsang, also known as Rato Monastery, is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery or monastic university of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" tradition. Rato was, for many centuries, one of the major monastic colleges in Tibet.
Khardong is a village in the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is located in the Nubra tehsil, 31 km by road north of Khardung La.
