Yumbulagang (Tibetan: ཡུམ་བུ་བླ་སྒང།, Wylie: yum bu bla sgang; Chinese:雍布拉康) or Yumbu Lakhar (Tibetan: ཡུམ་བུ་བླ་མཁར།, Wylie: yum bu bla mkhar,[1] is the original palace of the Yarlung Dynasty kings of Tibet. As the first building in Tibet, it was the palace of the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo who reigned during 127 BCE.[2]
Yumbulagang stands on a hill at a bend along the Yarlung Tsampo River, on the eastern bank of the Yarlung Valley of southeast Lhokha, about 192 kilometres (119mi) southeast of Lhasa and 9 kilometres (5.6mi) south of Tsetang.[3] The palace and its shrine were demolished during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, and the palace has been partially rebuilt.
History
Yumbulagang was built by the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo. He manifested by descending from the sky into a field of yaks, and was made the chief by the nomadic herds people. Chief Nyatri started to rule in 127 BCE, the start of the Tibetan Royal Era.
During the reign of the 28th king, Thothori Nyantsen in the fifth century AD, a golden stupa, a tsa-tsa mold, and a Mahayanasutra, that the king could not read, fell from the sky onto the roof of the Yumbulagang while the king was walking.[4] Another account states that an Indian Buddhist monk brought the relics as gifts for the king, and told him to keep them safe for five generations when their meanings would be understood. Another later account suggests "a voice from the sky announced, 'In five generations one shall come that understands its meaning!' "[5]
Five generations later, Yumbulagang became the palace of the 33rd Tibetan king, Songtsen Gampo (604-650 AD), who commissioned the written Tibetan language and alphabet.[2] He introduced Mahayana Buddhism to his court, while two of his foreign wives were already Buddhists: The Nepali queen Bhrikuti and the Chinese queen Wencheng. After Songtsen Gampo built the Red Palace in Lhasa and transferred the seat of his temporal authority to Lhasa, Yumbulagang became a shrine.
During the reign of the 5th Dalai Lama (1617-1682) a thousand years later, the Dalai Lama rebuilt the Red Palace as the Potala Palace, and turned Yumbulagang into a monastery for the Gelug school.
The Yumbulagang was destroyed during the Cultural revolution[6][7][8] and "only a piece of the original building's base remained in place." The palace was partially reconstructed in 1983.
Again in November 2017, restoration work valuing $1.5m began, to reinforce crumbling wooden foundations and cracked walls. It was expected to reopen to the public in April 2018.[9]
The palace is divided into front and rear precincts. The front is a three-storey building while the rear is dominated by a tall tower, like a castle. Enshrined at the palace are the statues of Thiesung Sangjie Buddha, King Nyatri Tsenpo, the first King of Tibet, King Songtsen Gampo and other Tibetan Empire era kings.
Zorthang
Traditionally, the largest cultivated area in Tibet, called Zorthang, is located to the northwest of Yumbulagang. Even today, farmers sprinkle soil from Zorthang 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 area.[7]
↑ Victor Chan, Tibet. Guide du pèlerin, Éditions Olizane, Genève, 1998, p. 590: "L'actuel Yumbu Lagang est une reconstruction (1982) du bâtiment originel, preque totalement détruit pendant la Révolution culturelle. Sa tour fut si gravement endommagée que seul un morceau de sa base demeura en place".
Buckley, Michael and Strauss, Robert. Tibet: a travel survival kit. (1986) Lonely Planet Publications, Victoria, Australia. ISBN0-908086-88-1.
Das, Sarat Chandra. (1902). Lhasa and Central Tibet. Reprint: (1988). Mehra Offset Press, Delhi.
Dorje, Gyume (1999). Footprint Tibet Handbook with Bhutan. Footprint Handbooks, Bath, England. ISBN0-8442-2190-2.
Dowman, Keith. (1988) The Power-Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London & New York. ISBN0-7102-1370-0.
Mayhew, Bradley and Kohn, Michael. (2005) Tibet. 6th Edition. ISBN1-74059-523-8.
ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho: bod kyi deb ther dpyid kyi rgyal mo’i glu dbyangs. Kapitel 2 und 3. Übersetzung von Zahiruddin Ahmad ins Englische: A History of Tibet by the Fifth Dalai Lama of Tibet (Bloomington, Indiana University 1995), ISBN0-933070-32-2.
nor brang o rgyan: gangs can yul gyi sa la spyod pa’i mtho ris kyi rgyal byon gtso bor brjod pa’i deb ther rdzogs ldan gzhon nu’i dga' ston dpyid kyi rgyal mo’i glu dyangs-kyi ’grel pa yid kyi dga’ ston (Beijing, mi rigs dpe skrun khang / Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 1993), ISBN0-933070-32-2.
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