what is Palyul?

Palyul is one of the six great "mother monasteries" following the Nyingma School, or Ancient Translation Tradition, of Tibetan Buddhism. The monastery was founded in 1665 in the Kham province of eastern Tibet (present-day Baiyu, Sichuan, China) by Kunzang Sherab, the First Palyul Throne Holder. His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, the Twelfth Throne Holder, is the current head of the Palyul Lineage and resides in Tibet. As His Holiness Penor Rinpoche tells us in the introduction to A Garland of Immortal Wish Fulfilling Trees, by Venerable Tsering Lama Jampal Zangpo that "... many troubled times have passed. However, due to the strength of the profound prayers made by many realized beings of the past, this stainless lineage has been maintained in an unbroken line to the present day. The original, undefiled blessings have been kept in not only the mother monastery, but also in the thousands of branch monasteries."