The Monastery of Tsourphou , located at about fifty km in the north of Lhassa, was founded in 1189 by the first Karmapa , Düsum Khyenpa. It was the seat of the 16 Karmapa S following.

Before the Cultural revolution, it sheltered some 900 monks and included/understood 4 monasteries established in a vast complex of buildings. One as of these 4 monasteries was the seat of the Gyaltsab Rinpoché S, which traditionally ensure regency between the incarnations. Gyaltsab means in fact " régent".

Droupeun Détchen Rinpoché, the current abbot of Tsourphou, was the former Master of retirement of Rumtek. He had fled the Tibet in 1959 with the 16th Karmapa, but this one had advised to him to turn over to Tsourphou to supervise rebuilding works. It is thanks to him and with the work of a great number of devoted people that the current monastery reappeared during the last years of the ruins where the Cultural revolution had left it. Ward Holmes and the Fondation Tsourphou which it created in particular stimulated a world interest for this exceptional place, nested between high summits in the valley of To, at the edges of bubbling water of a river which points out the powerful torrents of Scotland.

In the field of the Géomancie, it is about a very special place, located in a completely favorable way compared to the hills and to the valleys. The surrounding mountains are regarded as crowned places which concentrate energies and the blessings of the Mandala Vajrayâna.