11 the Emergence of the Yarlung Dynasty Songtsen Gampo and The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

11 the Emergence of the Yarlung Dynasty Songtsen Gampo and The

beliefs shaped the mind of peoples of Sumpa, Asha, Minyak and the Yarlung valley from which emerged the kings and emperors who laid the foundation of the Tibetan empire. The Emergence of the Yarlung Dynasty The one event which had the greatest impact on the subsequent cultural development of Tibet was the emergence of the kings of Yarlung who over the centuries cemented the peoples of the plateau under one single central authority and overran regions beyond Tibet. The ability of the kings of Yarlung, headquartered in Tsethang, the cradle of Tibetan civilization, to bring the whole plateau under one administration provided not only the material base for Tibet’s cultural development but also the governance that strengthened the cohesion of the Tibetan people. According to Buddhist historians, on this scene, emerged Nyatri Tsenpo in around 127 BC. From this period to the 7th century AD, until the emergence of Songtsen Gampo, who consolidated the realm of his forefathers and then took Tibet on an expansionist mission, Yarlung was ruled by a succession of thirty-one kings. During the reign of these kings, Bon remained the dominant belief system, although tentative contacts with Buddhism were made, especially during the reign of Lhatho Thori Nyentsen, the 28th king, who in around 233 AD received two Buddhist sutras which, though treated with great reverence, remained a mystery because Tibetans at the time had not mastered other peoples’ languages, including Sanskrit, the language in which the two sutras were presumably written. This piece of scriptural wisdom from Buddhist India remained as the Nyenpo Sangwa, A Fragile Secret. Songtsen Gampo and the Uniication of Tibet One of the great igures in Tibetan history, Songtsen Gampo, was born in 617. His reign was characterized by an outburst of military adventures within and beyond Tibet. In 634, the Tibetans subdued the Tuyu-hun (Turco-Mongols) camped around Tso Nyonpo or Kokonor Lake. In his study of Tibetan history, Tibet: A Political 11.

Copy Link

Recommended publications

On Bhutanese and Tibetan Dzongs **
ON BHUTANESE AND TIBETAN DZONGS ** Ingun Bruskeland Amundsen** “Seen from without, it´s a rocky escarpment! Seen from within, it´s all gold and treasure!”1 There used to be impressive dzong complexes in Tibet and areas of the Himalayas with Tibetan influence. Today most of them are lost or in ruins, a few are restored as museums, and it is only in Bhutan that we find the dzongs still alive today as administration centers and monasteries. This paper reviews some of what is known about the historical developments of the dzong type of buildings in Tibet and Bhutan, and I shall thus discuss towers, khars (mkhar) and dzongs (rdzong). The first two are included in this context as they are important in the broad picture of understanding the historical background and typological developments of the later dzongs. The etymological background for the term dzong is also to be elaborated. Backdrop What we call dzongs today have a long history of development through centuries of varying religious and socio-economic conditions. Bhutanese and Tibetan histories describe periods verging on civil and religious war while others were more peaceful. The living conditions were tough, even in peaceful times. Whatever wealth one possessed had to be very well protected, whether one was a layman or a lama, since warfare and strife appear to have been endemic. Security measures * Paper presented at the workshop "The Lhasa valley: History, Conservation and Modernisation of Tibetan Architecture" at CNRS in Paris Nov. 1997, and submitted for publication in 1999. ** Ingun B. Amundsen, architect MNAL, lived and worked in Bhutan from 1987 until 1998.
[Show full text]
The Lhasa Jokhang – Is the World's Oldest Timber Frame Building in Tibet? André Alexander*
The Lhasa Jokhang – is the world's oldest timber frame building in Tibet? * André Alexander Abstract In questo articolo sono presentati i risultati di un’indagine condotta sul più antico tempio buddista del Tibet, il Lhasa Jokhang, fondato nel 639 (circa). L’edificio, nonostante l’iscrizione nella World Heritage List dell’UNESCO, ha subito diversi abusi a causa dei rifacimenti urbanistici degli ultimi anni. The Buddhist temple known to the Tibetans today as Lhasa Tsuklakhang, to the Chinese as Dajiao-si and to the English-speaking world as the Lhasa Jokhang, represents a key element in Tibetan history. Its foundation falls in the dynamic period of the first half of the seventh century AD that saw the consolidation of the Tibetan empire and the earliest documented formation of Tibetan culture and society, as expressed through the introduction of Buddhism, the creation of written script based on Indian scripts and the establishment of a law code. In the Tibetan cultural and religious tradition, the Jokhang temple's importance has been continuously celebrated soon after its foundation. The temple also gave name and raison d'etre to the city of Lhasa (“place of the Gods") The paper attempts to show that the seventh century core of the Lhasa Jokhang has survived virtually unaltered for 13 centuries. Furthermore, this core building assumes highly significant importance for the fact that it represents authentic pan-Indian temple construction technologies that have survived in Indian cultural regions only as archaeological remains or rock-carved copies. 1. Introduction – context of the archaeological research The research presented in this paper has been made possible under a cooperation between the Lhasa City Cultural Relics Bureau and the German NGO, Tibet Heritage Fund (THF).
[Show full text]
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama's Rebirth Lineage
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage Nancy G. Lin1 (Vanderbilt University) Faced with something immensely large or unknown, of which we still do not know enough or of which we shall never know, the author proposes a list as a specimen, example, or indication, leaving the reader to imagine the rest. —Umberto Eco, The Infinity of Lists2 ncarnation lineages naming the past lives of eminent lamas have circulated since the twelfth century, that is, roughly I around the same time that the practice of identifying reincarnating Tibetan lamas, or tulkus (sprul sku), began.3 From the twelfth through eighteenth centuries it appears that incarnation or rebirth lineages (sku phreng, ’khrungs rabs, etc.) of eminent lamas rarely exceeded twenty members as presented in such sources as their auto/biographies, supplication prayers, and portraits; Dölpopa Sherab Gyeltsen (Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361), one such exception, had thirty-two. Among other eminent lamas who traced their previous lives to the distant Indic past, the lineages of Nyangrel Nyima Özer (Nyang ral Nyi ma ’od zer, 1124–1192) had up 1 I thank the organizers and participants of the USF Symposium on The Tulku Institution in Tibetan Buddhism, where this paper originated, along with those of the Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum—especially José Cabezón, Jake Dalton, Michael Sheehy, and Nicole Willock for the feedback and resources they shared. I am further indebted to Tony K. Stewart, Anand Taneja, Bryan Lowe, Dianna Bell, and Rae Erin Dachille for comments on drafted materials. I thank the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange for their generous support during the final stages of revision.
[Show full text]
Giấc Mơ Tây Tạng
THÍCH THÁI HÒA GIẤC MƠ TÂY TẠNG NHÀ XUẤT BẢN PHƢƠNG ĐÔNG Chùa Phƣớc Duyên - Huế PL 2558 - TL 2014 MỤC LỤC NGỎ ............................................................................................... 9 CHƢƠNG I: TỔNG QUAN VỀ TÂY TẠNG .......................... 16 Vùng đất ....................................................................................... 16 Con người ..................................................................................... 19 Lịch sử .......................................................................................... 26 Tôn giáo ........................................................................................ 30 Văn hóa ......................................................................................... 38 Kinh tế .......................................................................................... 43 Chính trị ........................................................................................ 44 Xã hội ........................................................................................... 45 CHƢƠNG II: CÁC TRIỀU ĐẠI ............................................... 48 Từ khởi nguyên đến năm 313 trước Công Nguyên ...................... 48 Từ lâu đài Taksé (Stag-rtse) đến triều đại Namri Löntsän ........... 49 Triều đại Songtsàn Gampo(618-650) ........................................... 50 Triều đại Mangsong Mangtsen (650-676) .................................... 57 Triều đại 'Dus-rong Mang-po-rje (677-704) ................................. 57 Triều đại Mes-ag-tshoms
[Show full text]
Buddhist Philosophy in Depth, Part 3
WISDOM ACADEMY Buddhist Philosophy in Depth, Part 3 JAY GARFIELD Lessons 6: The Transmission of Buddhism from India to Tibet, and the Shentong-Rangtong Debate Reading: The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems "Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism," pages 71-75 "The Nyingma Tradition," pages 77-84 "The Kagyu Tradition," pages 117-124 "The Sakya Tradition," pages 169-175 "The Geluk Tradition," pages 215-225 CrystalMirror_Cover 2 4/7/17 10:28 AM Page 1 buddhism / tibetan THE LIBRARY OF $59.95US TIBETAN CLASSICS t h e l i b r a r y o f t i b e t a n c l a s s i c s T C! N (1737–1802) was L T C is a among the most cosmopolitan and proliﬁc Tspecial series being developed by e Insti- Tibetan Buddhist masters of the late eighteenth C M P S, by Thuken Losang the crystal tute of Tibetan Classics to make key classical century. Hailing from the “melting pot” Tibetan Chökyi Nyima (1737–1802), is arguably the widest-ranging account of religious Tibetan texts part of the global literary and intel- T mirror of region of Amdo, he was Mongol by heritage and philosophies ever written in pre-modern Tibet. Like most texts on philosophical systems, lectual heritage. Eventually comprising thirty-two educated in Geluk monasteries. roughout his this work covers the major schools of India, both non-Buddhist and Buddhist, but then philosophical large volumes, the collection will contain over two life, he traveled widely in east and inner Asia, goes on to discuss in detail the entire range of Tibetan traditions as well, with separate hundred distinct texts by more than a hundred of spending signiﬁcant time in Central Tibet, chapters on the Nyingma, Kadam, Kagyü, Shijé, Sakya, Jonang, Geluk, and Bön schools.
[Show full text]
Remarks on Territorial Transformation and Identity in Imperial and Early
Tribal Mobility and Religious Fixation: Remarks on Territorial Transformation and Identity in Imperial and Early Post-Imperial Tibet Guntram Hazod [Accepted manuscript of the chapter published in: Walter Pohl, Clemens Gantner and Richard Payne (eds.), Visions of Community in the Post-Roman World: The West, Byzantium and the Islamic World, 300-1100 (Farnham: Ashgate 2012) 43–57.] At the start of the seventh century CE, there was a political upheaval in the southern agrarian zone of the Tibetan Highlands that was to have a lasting impact. A union of rival clans under the leadership of a local dynasty, the Pugyel (‘Princes of Pu’ (spu rgyal)), 1 led to the formation of a united kingdom. The Pugyel and their allies represented the new political unit as a holy order whose maintenance was guaranteed by the sovereign, henceforth entitled the tsänpo (btsan po), ‘powerful one’ (i.e. emperor). An effective military organization permitted the kingdom, striving for outward expansion, rapidly to emerge as a leading power in Central Asia. In the eighth century the empire came to extend beyond the Himalayas in the south, as far as Yunnan and Sichuan in the south-east and east, and into present-day north Pakistan in the west, and controlled the city states on the Silk Road in the north. Tang China, the powerful neighbour in the east, was repeatedly put in its place by Tufan, as Tibet (T. Bö (Bod); below, n. 9) was known in the Chinese sources. In the mid-ninth century the empire disintegrated almost as fast as it had emerged.
[Show full text]
The Life and Scholarship of the Eighteenth- Century Amdo Scholar Sum Pa Mkhan Po Ye Shes Dpal ’Byor (1704-1788)
Renaissance Man From Amdo: the Life and Scholarship of the Eighteenth- Century Amdo Scholar Sum Pa Mkhan Po Ye Shes Dpal ’Byor (1704-1788) The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:40050150 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Renaissance Man From Amdo: The Life and Scholarship of the Eighteenth-Century Amdo Scholar Sum pa Mkhan po Ye shes dpal ’byor (1704-1788) ! A dissertation presented by Hanung Kim to The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History and East Asian Languages Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April, 2018 © 2018 – Hanung Kim All rights reserved. ! Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp Hanung Kim Renaissance Man From Amdo: The Life and Scholarship of the Eighteenth- Century Amdo Scholar Sum pa Mkhan po Ye shes dpal ’byor (1704-1788) Abstract! This dissertation examines the new cultural developments in eighteenth-century northeastern Tibet, also known as Amdo, by looking into the life story of a preeminent monk- scholar, Sum pa Mkhan po Ye shes dpal ’byor (1708-1788). In the first part, this study corroborates what has only been sensed by previous scholarship, that is, the rising importance of Amdo in Tibetan cultural history.
[Show full text]
High Peaks, Pure Earth
BOOK REVIEW HIGH PEAKS, PURE EARTH COLLECTED WRITINGS ON TIBETAN HISTORY AND CULTURE BY HUGH RICHARDSON A COMPILATION OF A SERIES OF PROGRAMS ON RADIO FREE ASIA TIBETAN SERVICE BY WARREN W. SMITH 1 HIGH PEAKS, PURE EARTH High Peaks, Pure Earth is the title of the collected works on Tibetan history and culture by Hugh Richardson, a British diplomat who became a historian of Tibet. He was British representative in Lhasa from 1936 to 1940 and again from 1946 to 1950, during which time he did many studies on ancient and modern Tibetan history. He wrote numerous articles on Tibetan history and culture, all of which have been published in this book of his collected writings. Hugh Richardson was born in Scotland, a part of Great Britain that bears some similarities to Tibet, both in its environment and in its politics. Scotland has long had a contentious relationship with England and was incorporated only by force into Great Britain. Richardson became a member of the British administration of India in 1932. He was a member of a 1936 British mission to Tibet. Richardson remained in Lhasa to become the first officer in charge of the British Mission in Lhasa. He was in Lhasa from 1936 to 1940, when the Second World War began. After the war he again represented the British Government in Lhasa from 1946 to 1947, when India became independent, after which he was the representative of the Government of India. He left Tibet only in September 1950, shortly before the Chinese invasion. Richardson lived in Tibet for a total of eight years.
[Show full text]
Some Reflections on the Periodization of Tibetan History*
Some Reflections on the Periodization of Tibetan History* Bryan J. Cuevas (Florida State University, USA) istory is always expressed as a narrative, a story about the past. To Hwrite a story out of the events of the past, historians must give those events a coherent meaning and plot those meaningful events as chapters in a larger narrative. This means that the method of writing history is not simply the recording of a series of past events, or a set of dates. Such a record would not be a history but a mere chronology, and history is never just a chronicle of dates. Historiography, the study of history and the methods employed in how individuals, or a community of people, or a culture come to understand the past and articulate that understanding, presupposes that history by necessity, whether we prefer this or not, is always written in chapters. Periodization — the breaking-up of the past into chapters, or “periods” — is one necessary way historians make sense of the past and also write history. The question of periodization, however, is one of those topics in historiography that generates fierce debates and can create, and certainly has created, much controversy. The problem of periodization is precisely this problem of how best to characterize and interpret the chapters in a coherent story of the past. As many insightful historians have warned over the years, the articulation of historical periods may indeed be arbitrary and artificial, but rarely is such articulation a neutral, unambiguous, and value- free enterprise. Having heeded this warning, I choose in this brief essay — perhaps unwisely — to charge headlong into this academic mine-field where success is not only risky, but far from guaranteed.
[Show full text]
The Dalai Lama
THE INSTITUTION OF THE DALAI LAMA 1 THE DALAI LAMAS 1st Dalai Lama: Gendun Drub 8th Dalai Lama: Jampel Gyatso b. 1391 – d. 1474 b. 1758 – d. 1804 Enthroned: 1762 f. Gonpo Dorje – m. Jomo Namkyi f. Sonam Dargye - m. Phuntsok Wangmo Birth Place: Sakya, Tsang, Tibet Birth Place: Lhari Gang, Tsang 2nd Dalai Lama: Gendun Gyatso 9th Dalai Lama: Lungtok Gyatso b. 1476 – d. 1542 b. 1805 – d. 1815 Enthroned: 1487 Enthroned: 1810 f. Kunga Gyaltsen - m. Kunga Palmo f. Tenzin Choekyong Birth Place: Tsang Tanak, Tibet m. Dhondup Dolma Birth Place: Dan Chokhor, Kham 3rd Dalai Lama: Sonam Gyatso b. 1543 – d. 1588 10th Dalai Lama: Tsultrim Gyatso Enthroned: 1546 b. 1816 – d. 1837 f. Namgyal Drakpa – m. Pelzom Bhuti Enthroned: 1822 Birth Place: Tolung, Central Tibet f. Lobsang Drakpa – m. Namgyal Bhuti Birth Place: Lithang, Kham 4th Dalai Lama: Yonten Gyatso b. 1589 – d. 1617 11th Dalai Lama: Khedrub Gyatso Enthroned: 1601 b. 1838– d. 1855 f. Sumbur Secen Cugukur Enthroned 1842 m. Bighcogh Bikiji f. Tseten Dhondup – m. Yungdrung Bhuti Birth Place: Mongolia Birth Place: Gathar, Kham 5th Dalai Lama: 12th Dalai Lama: Trinley Gyatso Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso b. 1856 – d. 1875 b. 1617 – d. 1682 Enthroned: 1860 Enthroned: 1638 f. Phuntsok Tsewang – m. Tsering Yudon f. Dudul Rapten – m. Kunga Lhadze Birth Place: Lhoka Birth Place: Lhoka, Central Tibet 13th Dalai Lama: Thupten Gyatso 6th Dalai Lama: Tseyang Gyatso b. 1876 – d. 1933 b. 1683 – d. 1706 Enthroned: 1879 Enthroned: 1697 f. Kunga Rinchen – m. Lobsang Dolma f. Tashi Tenzin – m. Tsewang Lhamo Birth Place: Langdun, Central Tibet Birth Place: Mon Tawang, India 14th Dalai Lama: Tenzin Gyatso 7th Dalai Lama: Kalsang Gyatso b.
[Show full text]
Florida State University Libraries
Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2011 Outward Beauty, Hidden Wrath: An Exploration of the Drikung Kagyü Dharma Protectress Achi Chökyi Drölma Kristen Kail Muldowney Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES OUTWARD BEAUTY, HIDDEN WRATH: By KRISTEN KAIL MULDOWNEY A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2011 The members of the committee approve the thesis of Kristen Kail Muldowney defended on March 18, 2011. _______________________________________ Bryan Cuevas Professor Directing Thesis _______________________________________ Kathleen Erndl Committee Member _______________________________________ Jimmy Yu Committee Member Approved: _____________________________________ John Corrigan, Chair, Department of Religion The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii This work is dedicated to my Grandmother, Lois Sobin, who has instilled in me a passion for books and far off places, and to my Grandfather, Alvin Sobin, who has always been patient enough to indulge us both. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work and everything that has led up to its completion could not have been accomplished without the help and support of countless individuals. First and foremost, I am indebted to my professors at Florida State University for all of the advice and guidance they have given to me throughout my graduate studies. In particular, I am thankful to Bryan Cuevas for and the academic study of Tibet in general. I am just as grateful to Kathleen Erndl and Jimmy Yu for all of their advice and criticisms; both have helped me to see my research with new and different perspectives and have inspired me academically and personally.
[Show full text]
John Vincent Bellezza and the Pre-History of Tibet Spirit-Mediums
John Vincent Bellezza and the Pre-History of Tibet Spirit-mediums, Sacred Mountains and Related Bon Textual Traditions in Upper Tibet: Calling Down the Gods By John Vincent Bellezza Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005. 568 pp. ISBN: 9004143882. Hardcover. $199 Review by Michael White There was a time in the ancient history of our globe when people believed the earth was a living being ruled over by all the forces of the sun, moon and stars and all the particulars of nature were living elementals. These supernatural forces were in a hierarchy, and the tallest mountains and largest lakes were the divine monarchs of the pantheon of local deities. John Vincent Bellezza’s work document- ing the pre-Buddhist history of Tibet has opened a window into this ancient history, which, incredibly, still survives on the high reaches of the Trans-Himalayan mountains of Tibet. He has published four major studies with another forthcoming. These includeAntiquities of Northern Tibet (2001) and its companion, Antiquities of Upper Tibet (2002), which survey a great variety of archaeological sites on the high plateaus of Tibet. These books are richly illustrated with photo- graphs of diﬀerent types of ruins, including megalithic remains and prehistoric rock art on the high plateaus between 14,000 and 18,000 feet. These two books provide detailed archaeological surveys of a large number of ruins of pre-Buddhist sites without going into detail regarding the anthropological or ethnographic information associated with the sites. His other two books, Divine Dyads: Ancient Civilizations in Tibet (1997) and Spirit Mediums, Sacred Mountains and Related Bon Textual Traditions in Upper Tibet: Calling Down the Gods (2005) provide more detailed anthropological and ethnographic information along with textual and linguistic research that casts a light on the pre historical remains that he documents.
[Show full text]