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For practitioners drawn to the Sakya tradition, pilgrimage naturally orients itself around the great monastic seats where its distinctive blend of sutra and tantra has been preserved and transmitted. Foremost among these is Sakya Monastery in Tibet, the original seat of the lineage and the principal destination for devotees. This vast complex, historically divided into northern and southern sections, is revered not only as the institutional heart of the school but also as a repository of an immense library and mural cycles that embody centuries of scholastic and contemplative activity. The surrounding region, including the broader Sakya area in Tsang, is often regarded as the core sacred landscape of the tradition.
Alongside the central seat, several major branch monasteries form a wider mandala of Sakya pilgrimage. Ngor Monastery, founded by Ngorchen Künga Zangpo, stands out as the principal center of the Ngor sub‑tradition, renowned for its extensive tantric lineages and especially for Hevajra practice. Nalendra Monastery, near Lhasa, has long functioned as a crucial scholastic and tantric institution, associated with eminent Sakya scholars and philosophers. These sites are not merely architectural monuments; they are living environments where the doctrinal synthesis of sutra and tantra is studied, debated, and ritually enacted.
Over time, the sacred geography of the Sakya school has expanded beyond its original Tibetan heartland. Historical centers such as Shalu Monastery and Sakya strongholds in regions like Mustang in Nepal are often included in broader circuits of devotion, reflecting the diffusion of the lineage across the Himalayan world. In more recent centuries, exile seats and new foundations have come to play a parallel role for practitioners unable to journey to Tibet. Monastic centers in places such as Dehradun in India, along with other Sakya institutions in the Himalayan region and beyond, now serve as important pilgrimage destinations where followers seek teachings, empowerments, and blessings rooted in the same unbroken stream of transmission.