Ganden Monastery’s Autogenous Miracles (rang byon): A Study in Tibetan Pilgrimage, Material Culture, and Discursive Construction

As one of Central Asia's most popular pilgrimage sites, Ganden Monastery in Tibet is renowned for the autogenous phenomena (or rangjön) found along its circumambulation route. These rangjön depict deities and other phenomena thought to have spontaneously and miraculously manifested in the rockface. The goal of this paper is to describe the significance and function of Ganden's rangjön. Analyzing pilgrimage guide texts related to Ganden, it argues that rangjön are complex phenomena that are best understood as both material and discursive constructions with implications in the social, religious, and geographic spheres. And that the presence of rangjön represents a method by which a manmade monastery became a sacred place, one that then played a key role in the growth of the Tsongkhapa devotional cult and the rise of the Geluk tradition. As a corollary, I argue for the thus far overlooked importance of monasteries as pilgrimage sites in Tibet.