Yungbulakang Palace

Yumbulagang (Tibetan: ཡུམ་བུ་ལྷ་སྒང༌།, ZYPY: Yumbulhagang or Tibetan: ཡུམ་བུ་བླ་མཁར།, ZYPY: Yumbulakar; also known as Yumbu Lakhang or Yungbulakang Palace) is an ancient palace in the Yarlung Valley, Nêdong County in the vicinity of Zêtang the seat of the prefectural administration of Lhoka (Pinyin: Shannan), in the South of Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

According to legend it was the first building in Tibet and the palace of the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo. Yungbulakang stands on a hill on the eastern bank of the Yarlung River in the Yarlung Valley of southeast Naidong County, about 192 km southeast of Lhasa, and 9 km south of Tsetang.[1]

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History

According to a legend of followers of the Bön religion, Yumbulagang was erected in the second century B.C. for the first Tibetan king Nyatri Tsenpo, descended from the sky. During the reign of the 28th king, Lha Thothori Nyantsen, in the fifth century, a golden Stupa, a jewel (and/or a form to the manufacture of dough-Stupas)[2] and a Sutra that no one could read fell from the sky on the roof of Yumbulagang; a voice from the sky announced: "in five generations one shall come, that understands its meaning!"[3] Later, Yumbulagang became the summer palace of the 33rd king Songtsen Gampo and princess Wencheng. After Songtsen Gampo had transferred his seat to Lhasa, Yumbulagang became a shrine and under the reign of the 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, a monastery of the Gelugpa school.

The Yumbulagang was heavily damaged and reduced to a single storey during the Cultural revolution[4] but was reconstructed in 1983.[5]

Interior

The castle is divided into front and back parts. The front is a 3 storey building while the back has a tall tower like a castle. Enshrined at the palace are the statues of Thiesung Sangjie Buddha, King Niechi, the first King of Tibet, Songsten Gampo and other Tubo kings.

Zortang

The first cultivated field in Tibet is called Zortang and is located to the northwest below Yungbulagang. Even today farmers sprinkle soil from Zortang on their own fields to ensure a good harvest. There used to be a temple, Lharu Menlha, containing images of the Eight Medicine Buddhas near the field.[6]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Mayhew (2005), p. 153.
  2. ^ Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche: The Eight Manifestations of Guru Padmasambhva (ratna.info)
  3. ^ Eva M. Dargyay: The Rise of Esoteric Buddhism in Tibet (Delhi, Motinal Banarsidass 1979), ISBN 81-208-1577-7, S. 4.
  4. ^ Dowman (1988), p. 180.
  5. ^ Dorje (1999), p. 195.
  6. ^ Dorje (1999), p. 195.

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