Built in the 7th century, the Changzhu Monastery is situated at the east bank of the Yalong River in the south of the Shannan District in Tibet. It is about 5km to the south of Tsetang city, just on the main road to Luotsa County (a border county in the south of Tibet, sharing border with India.)

In Tibetan, 'Chang' means a big roc bird and 'Zhu' means dragon, so the Changzhu Monastery means the honorable monastery. Tibetan legend goes that once upon a time, the site of the Monastery was an extremely deep lake. In the lake there is a five-head dragon. After Songtsen Gampo got the control of Tibet, he wanted to drain the lake and build a castle there. So he invited two Masters to lure a big roc bird to attack the dragon. The two Masters first of all imitated the sound of the bird and lured the dragon out, and then they imitated the sound of the dragon to lure the bird out, so the dragon and the bird started a fight. The bird at last chopped off two of the dragons' heads with its wings. Seven days later, the lake disappeared. That is how the Monastery got its name. 

It is said that the monastery was constructed by the order of Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century, with a history of over 1300 years. Princess Wencheng once lived there when she first entered Tibet. Its main construction is the Cuoqin Palace enshrined the Sakyamuni Buddha and the Guanyin Bodhisattva Buddha, inside the palace there is a winding corridor, and many scriptures are carved on the wall inside the winding corridor. In the side palace Qujilakang, the statues of Songtsen Gampo, Wencheng Princess, Chizun Princess and some royal members are mainly worship. There are still a lot of statues and mural paintings with simple and colorful models in the palace. Some pearls were buried as the corner stone for the monastery. The most attractive thing in this temple is the Pearl made Tangkha (a kind of embroidery), which was made of 29026 pieces of pearls, 1 diamond, 1 ruby, 1 sapphire and 15 grams of gold. It is a miracle to see it passed down generations to generations without being damaged or lost during political struggles and wars. 

The Changzhu Monastery has experienced many damages and fallen into disrepair for quite a few years. Now only the Great Hall survives. During the reign of the period of 5th Dalai, the Changzhu Monastery was once repaired, rebuilt and added a gold top for grand sightseeing showing the respect to Songtsen Gampo and Wencheng Princess. During the reign of the period of the 13th Dalai, the monastery was repaired, enlarged and renovated again. There was once a famous hanging bell that was made under the supervision of Han monk Renqing Master in late of the 8th century; on the bell there are 12 sentences of Tibetan epigraphs, praised by the people at that time. Later in Qing Dynasty, the Changzhu Monastery was destroyed. Those 12 Tibetan sentences bell were gone at the same time, but the two Indian style Buddhist tower behind the monastery was preserved perfectly till now.