| China Destination Guide: lhasa |
|
Main Tour Attractions in
lhasa
Potala Palace
The Potala Palace was the official residence of Tibet’s magistrate and religious leader, Dalai Lama. The fifth Dalai Lama first lived here, as the successive Dalai Lamas, until 1959, when the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising. The palace is currently a state museum.
The Potala Palace is located on top of the Red Hill in the Lhasa Valley. Back in the 7th century, the hilltop was a place of prayer and meditation for Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, who later constructed the original Potala Place at the site as a residence for his new bride from China, Princess Wenchen. Destroyed a number of times in the coming centuries, the palace was rebuilt in the 19th century.
Sitting at an altitude of 3,700 m (12,100 ft), Potala Palace measures 110 m (361 ft) in height. Among the main buildings in the complex is the White Palace, which was the residential quarters of Dalai Lama, and Red Palace, where religious studies and ceremonies take place. The palace houses a wide-range of precious religious and historical artifacts.
Jokhang Monastery
Jokhang Monastery is the most sacred temple in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Located in the old district of Lhasa, the sanctuary was originally constructed in the middle of the 7th century, by King Songtsen Gampo, to house the previous Buddhist images that the king’s Chinese and Nepalese brides brought to Tibet as part of their dowries. The main hall of the temple houses a statue of Sakyamuni or Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, which Princess of Tang China brought to Tibet when she married King Songtsen Gampo. The statue was of life-size of Sakyamuni when he was twelve-year old, and was the most revered object in Tibetan Buddhism.
Jokhang Monastery today remains a popular destination of Buddhist pilgrimage. While tourists pay an entrance fee to enter the temple, Tibetan Buddhist worshippers could enter the sanctuary freely. A common scene is pilgrims kneeling and praying repeatedly as they approached the temple.
Initially constructed in the 7th century, Jokhang Monastery was renovated and expanded over the centuries and currently covers an area of over 25,000 sq. meters.
Barkhor Street
Barkhor Street
Barkhor Street is located in the traditional part of Lhasa and is one of the oldest streets in the city. The term Barkhor originally referred to the path surrounding Jokhang Temple; nowadays many people use the term to designates the whole neighborhood consisted of the original street, adjacent lanes and buildings, and a public square outside Jokhang Temple.
Johkang Temple, one of the holiest site for Tibetan Buddhist believers, was originally constructed in the 7th century and attracted a large number of pilgrims from early on. It was a common practice of the visiting devotees to hike around the sacred temple – always clockwise – to obtain divine blessings. Trekking believers hold and turn a payer wheel with one hand and count their prayer beads with the other as they walk and chant a sacred mantra. Barkhor the pilgrim’s path is one of the three such trails in Lhasa. There is an inner circuit inside Jokhang Temple, and the outmost circuit goes round old town Lhasa.
Because Barkhor Street draw a large number of pilgrims and other visitors everyday, over time the nearby neighborhood saw the appearance of numerous shops and stalls, where goods ranging from religious objects (sutras, banners, beads) to common Tibetan souvenirs (jewelry, fabrics, knives, spices) can be purchased. The atmosphere at the Barkhor is, therefore, a curious mixture of religious devotion and commercial fervor.
Drepung Monastery
Founded in 1416, Drepung is one of the “Great Three” monasteries in Gelug Buddhism. It is located in Gambo Utse Mountain, a few kilometers west of Lhasa. Drepung Monastery contains four colleges (Zhacangs), where young monks are educated. In its heydays, Drepung Monastery enrolled over seven thousand monks. Currently the monastery occupies 50 acres of land and houses several hundred Buddhist monks.
Before the reconstruction and extension of Potala Palace in the 16th century, Drepung Monastery was the home monastery of Dalai Lamas – The earliest Dalai Lamas were officially ordained here, till the Fifth Dalai Lama relocated to Potala Palace.
Shoton Festival is a major annual event at Drepung Monastery. On June 30 of the Tibetan Calendar, monks place a large (20x30 m) Thangka (embroidered banner) bearing the image of Sakyamuni Buddha on Mount Gambo Utse. Thousands of pilgrims gather on the occasion to pay tributes and to be blessed. Tibetan opera and other festive activities follow the unveiling ceremony.
Gandan Monastery
Gandan (Ganden) Temple is located 45 kilometers east of Lhasa. One of three leading temples in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the monastery was created in 1409, during the Ming Dynasty in Chinese history, by Tsongkhapa, the founder of Gelug Buddhism. The abbot of Gandan Temple, known as “tripa,” is traditionally considered one of the top priests in Tibetan Buddhism, whose importance ranks next only to Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. At its height point, Gandan Temple housed over 7,000 Buddhist monks.
Currently over 50 buildings stand on the ground of Gandan Temple, including prayer halls, monastic colleges and residential quarters for the lamas. The monastery is also the site of notable artworks and relics such as the 95 stupas built in the honor of the successive tripas of the temple, broidery from the Ming period in Chinese history, and treasures sent as gifts from Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
During the Great Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, Gandan Temple suffered severe damages, in spite of the fact that the place had been officially designated as a national heritage treasure. The establishment has been partially rebuilt and repaired since then.
Sera Monastery
Located four kilometers north of Potala Palace, Sera Monastery was one of the three major monasteries in the tradition of Gelugpa (Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism). The monastery original established in 1419 when its founder, Sakya Yeshe, upon a trip to China and an audience with the Chinese emperor then, constructed the monastery to house sutras, statues and other sacred Buddhist objects (over ten thousand Buddhist statues are currently sheltered in the monastery).
The origin of the name Sera is unclear. Since the term in Tibetan language could mean “wild roses” or “hailstorm,” there have been speculations that the named came from the flowers in the fields surrounding the monastery, or, alternatively, referred to a hailstorm swept across the region when the monastery was first established.
Occupying an area of 28 acres, Sera Monastery is primarily consisted of a main hall (tsokchen) and three educational and residential colleges (tsatsang). The monastery has a long tradition of educating Buddhist monks. Of the three colleges at the monastery, Sera Mey Tsatsang was the oldest; founded in 1419, it was devoted to the instruction of novice monks. Sera Jey Tsatsang, added in 1435, provide lessons in Buddhism for itinerant or visiting monks. The last of the three colleges, established in 1559, is devoted to the teaching of Gelugpa doctrines. One particular activity at the monastery is the daily doctrinal debates among the Buddhist students. At three o’clock in the afternoon all the monks at the monastery would gather in a open yard and engage one another in heated debate on various theological issues as a way to advance knowledge of Buddhism. It is an interesting scene to behold.
|
|
|
|
|
|
