Yerpa

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Yerpa
Tibetan name
Tibetan: གཡེར་པ
Wylie transliteration: g•yer pa
pronunciation in IPA: [jeːpa]
official transcription (PRC): Yêrba
THDL: Yerpa
other transcriptions: —
Chinese name
traditional: 葉巴
simplified: 叶巴
Pinyin: Yèbā

Yerpa. Also: Brag Yer-pa, Drak Yerpa, Dagyeba, Dayerpa, Trayerpa. The entrance to the Yerpa Valley is about 16 km northeast of Lhasa on the northern bank of the Kyichu. From there ,it is another 10 km to the famous ancient meditation caves in the spectacular limestone cliffs of the Yerpa Valley.

There are a number of small temples shrines and hermitages and the cliffs contain some of the earliest known meditation sites in Tibet, some dating back to pre-Buddhist times. Among the more famous are those traditionally connected with Songtsän Gampo (604–650 CE), (traditionally the 33rd king of of the Yarlung Dynasty and first emperor of a united Tibet), and Padmasambhava or Guru Rinpoche (late 8th to early 9th century), meditated and practiced tantric yoga with his yogini Yeshe Tsogyal here.

After this, Yerpa became one of the three most important centres of meditation and retreat in Central Tibet. Several of Guru Rinpoche's disciples are also said to have meditated here. Atisha (982 - 1054 CE) preached extensively in the valley.[1]

Later histories record that both Songsten Gampo and Trisong Detsen (756-797) founded temples at Yerpa, and Klu-mes Tshul-khrims did some refurbishing in the 11th century.[2][3]

Yerpa
Yerpa

Tradition says that after Songtsän Gampo's only son, Gungri Gungsten, was born to Mangza Tricham, Princess of Mang, one of his wives: "A shrine and a stupa dedicated to the tutelary deity of mother and son were built upon the lap of a rocky mountain that resembled a seated image of the Holy Tara in the region of Yerpa."[4]

The famous legendary hero Gesar of Ling is said to have visited the valley. The holes his arrows left in the cliffs are believed to be evidence of his presence.

The ancient Kadampa gompa (Yerpa Drubde) passed to the Gelukpa control after Tsongkapa's reformation. There were some 300 monks living here from at least the beginning of the 19th century until 1959. It also acted as summer residence for the Gyuto Lhasa Tantric College.[5] The gompa was destroyed and the caves ransacked during the cultural revolution but there has been some rebuilding; new statues have been made and images repainted in the caves.

After Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje assassinated the anti-Buddhist Bon Emperor Langdarma in 842 CE, he is said to have hidden himself in a cave where his hat was kept until 1959.[6][7]

There is an ancient sky burial site opposite the main caves.

Monastery ruins, Yerpa, 1993

Entrance to Dawa Puk, Guru Rinpoche's cave

Self-originated sacred symbol

A statue of Emperor Songtsän Gampo in his meditation cave at Yerpa

Statue of Guru Rinpoche in his meditation cave at Yerpa

Yerpa Valley

Gesar's arrow holes. (Click to view the holes in the mountains).

Sky burial site, Yerpa.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Dowman, Keith. The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, pp. 73, 79. 1988. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0
  2. ^ Richardson, H. E. 1985. A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions, p. 144. Royal Asiatic Society. ISBN 0-94759300-4
  3. ^ Ancient Tibet: Research Materials from The Yeshe De Project (1986), pp. 314-315. Dharma Publishing. ISBN 0-89800-146-3.
  4. ^ Gyaltsen, Sakyapa Sonam. The Clear Mirror: A Traditional Account of Tibet's Golden Age, pp. 188-189. Translated by McComas Taylor and Lama Choedak Yuthok. 1996. Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, N.Y. ISBN 1-55939-048-4
  5. ^ Dowman, Keith. The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, p. 79. 1988. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0
  6. ^ Dowman, Keith. The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, p. 75. 1988. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0
  7. ^ Gyaltsen, Sakyapa Sonam. The Clear Mirror: A Traditional Account of Tibet's Golden Age, p. 266. Translated by McComas Taylor and Lama Choedak Yuthok. 1996. Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, N.Y. ISBN 1-55939-048-4

[edit] References

  • Dowman, Keith. The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, pp. 73-79. 1988. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0
  • Gyaltsen, Sakyapa Sonam. The Clear Mirror: A Traditional Account of Tibet's Golden Age. Translated by McComas Taylor and Lama Choedak Yuthok. 1996. Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, N.Y. ISBN 1-55939-048-4
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