Shalu Monastery 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.
Dalai Lama is the most recent in the huge line of lraders of Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. He is considered to be an exemplification of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and thus the defender of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are realized beings inspired by a wish to realize Buddhahood for the advantage of all sentient beings, who have vowed to be reborn within the planet to help humanity.
In 1578 the Mongol ruler Altan .