Yungbulakang Palace

The restored Yumbu Lakhang

Yumbu Lakhang (Tibetan: ཡུམ་བུ་བླ་སྒང།, Wylie: yum bu bla sgang ) or Yumbu Lakhang (Tibetan: །, Wylie: yum bu bla mkhar ,^[1] also known as Yumbu Lakhang) is an ancient structure in the Yarlung Valley in the vicinity of Tsetang, Nêdong County, the seat of Lhoka Prefecture, in the southern Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

According to legend, it was the first building in Tibet and the palace of the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo. Yumbu Lakhang stands on a hill on the eastern bank of the Yarlung River in the Yarlung Valley of southeast Nêdong County about 192 kilometres (119 mi) southeast of Lhasa and 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) south of Tsetang.^[2]

History

According to Bon traditions, Yumbu Lakhang was erected in the second century BCE for the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo, who descended from the sky. During the reign of the 28th king, Thothori Nyantsen, in the fifth century CE, a golden stupa, a jewel (and/or a form to the manufacture of dough-Stupas)^[3] and a sutra that no one could read fell from the sky onto the roof of the Yumbu Lakhang; a voice from the sky announced, "In five generations one shall come that understands its meaning!"^[4] Later, Yumbu Lakhang became the summer palace of the 33rd Tibetan king, Songtsän Gampo (604-650 CE) and his Chinese princess, Wencheng. After Songtsän Gampo had transferred the seat of his temporal and spiritual authority to Lhasa, Yumbu Lakhang became a shrine.

A thousand years later, during the reign of the 5th Dalai Lama (1617-82), the palace was turned into a monastery for the Gelug school.

The Yumbu Lakhang was heavily damaged and reduced to a single storey during the Cultural revolution^[5] but was reconstructed in 1983.^[6]

Interior

The castle 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 Niechi, the first King of Tibet, Songsten Gampo and other Tubo kings.

Zortang

Traditionally, it is said that the first cultivated field in Tibet, called Zortang, is located to the northwest, below Yumbu Lakhang. 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.^[7]

Footnotes

1. "Places»Place Types»Sites»Palace»yum bu bla mkhar/". Tibetan Buddhist Research Center. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
2. Mayhew (2005), p. 153.
3. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche: The Eight Manifestations of Guru Padmasambhva (ratna.info)
4. Eva M. Dargyay: The Rise of Esoteric Buddhism in Tibet (Delhi, Motinal Banarsidass 1979), ISBN 81-208-1577-7, S. 4.
5. Dowman (1988), p. 180.
6. Dorje (1999), p. 195.
7. Dorje (1999), p. 195.

References

• Buckley, Michael and Strauss, Robert. Tibet: a travel survival kit. (1986) Lonely Planet Publications, Victoria, Australia. ISBN 0-908086-88-1.
• 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. ISBN 0-8442-2190-2.
• Dowman, Keith. (1988) The Power-Paces of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London & New York. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0.
• Mayhew, Bradley and Kohn, Michael. (2005) Tibet. 6th Edition. ISBN 1-74059-523-8.
• 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), ISBN 0-933070-32-2.
• 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), ISBN 0-933070-32-2.
• History of Tibet – A Few Chapters (Part 1)
• "The ancient hilltop palace Yumbu Lakhang (Yumbulhakhang), Tibet's oldest building.". National Geographic Creative.

External links

• Yum bu bla sgang (Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library)

Coordinates: 29°08′39″N 91°48′01″E / 29.1441°N 91.8002°E