Famous Buddhist temples in Tibet

 

Famous Buddhist temples in Tibet

 

Buddhism is one of the three major "world religions". It was introduced to the Central Plains from the Western Regions in the Eastern Han Dynasty or a little before. Since then, it has gradually formed a pattern in which Chinese Buddhism is the mainstay, and Tibetan Buddhism and Southern Buddhism coexist. The Qing Dynasty followed the Yuan and Ming dynasties' basic policy of respecting and utilizing Buddhism, protecting Buddhist temples and creating many magnificent Jialan temples.

The wise man Agudengba and the caravan leader Lacuo finally came to the Himalayas and arrived in Lhasa during their trip to Tibet.

Along the way, the two chatted about Tibetan Buddhism.

Agudengba pointed at the majestic Potala Palace and said:

The Potala Palace, the most famous Lamaist building in Tibet, originated from the palace built for Princess Wencheng when she came to Tibet in the 7th century. However, it was not completed until the 17th century to its current scale.

On the Tibetan Plateau, Tibetan Buddhism has developed and spread for more than a thousand years. In many large and small monasteries, we will see an ancient, magical, glorious and majestic world, and see the unique customs and excellent artistic talents of the Tibetan people. , extraordinary imagination and outstanding creativity, plateau monasteries have become a gathering place of Tibetan culture.

The heyday of the development of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries was in the 500 years from the 10th to the 15th century. During this period, the Nyingma, Kadam, Sakya, Kagyu, Gelug and other sects and sect branches were formed. These sects and sect branches Each has its own temple. The most famous ones are Jokhang Temple, Tuolin Temple, Sakya Temple, Tsurbu Temple, Zhigongti Temple, Karma Temple, Ganden Temple, Drepung Temple, Sera Temple, Baiju Temple, Tashilhunpo Temple, etc. According to a survey in the late 1950s, there were more than 2,600 large and small temples in Tibet.

The eleven-faced Guanyin statue in Qudegong Temple, Naidong County. This gold-plated bronze Buddha is about 800 years old. Qudegong Temple was built in the 11th century AD. It is said to be the residence of Redo Zawa, the great translator of Tibetan Buddhism. It was later converted into a temple and belonged to the Gelug sect.

Agudemba said:

There are many temples on the snow-covered plateau, each with its own style in architecture and art. Jokhang Temple, Samye Temple, Sakya Temple, etc. are representatives of temple architecture on Pingchuan. Sutra halls and Buddhist halls are distributed in the form of mandala, with orderly layout and solemnity; while Zhigongti Temple, Tsurbu Temple, Sera Temples, etc., are all built on the hillside. They are located at various heights and are majestic and solemn. They are like sacred castles, standing on the top of steep rock peaks, becoming a major local landscape.

As a part of religious art, there are many statues of gods and Buddhas in the temple, with vivid images, strange shapes and unique styles. Some are tens of meters high, and some are only the size of a palm. Their high shaping skills and gorgeous decorations are astonishing. Various Buddha statues use a wide range of raw materials, including gold, silver, jade, ivory, fragrant wood, gemstones, ceramics, etc.

Painting and mural art are also important components of temple art. The content of the murals is mainly religious-themed stories and history. The pigments are traditional minerals such as stone yellow, stone green, azurite, and cinnabar, and are mixed with animal glue and ox bile. The color will not fade over time.

Gorgeous, mostly made of cloth and silk, and some are painted on paper, which is also a special Tibetan paper. In addition, the embroidery and butter flowers in the temple are also two major artistic wonders of Tibetan Buddhism and are deeply loved by the masses.

Agudengba said again:

Samye Monastery is the first monastery in Tibetan Buddhism where monks were ordained and became monks. Also known as Cunxiang Temple and Wubian Temple, it is located in Samye Town, Zhanang County, Shannan Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, at the foot of Habu Mountain on the north bank of the Brahmaputra River. Samye Temple was built in the 8th century AD during the Tubo Dynasty. The buildings in the temple are laid out according to the Buddhist cosmology, and the central Buddhist hall has three styles: Tibetan, Han, and Indian. Therefore, Samye Temple is also called the Three Kinds Temple. There are more than 50 monks in Samye Temple.

The Jokhang Temple should have the highest status in Tibetan Buddhism, with a history of more than 1,300 years. The Jokhang Temple, also known as "Zulakang" and "Juekang" (meaning Buddhist temple in Tibetan), is located in the center of the old city of Lhasa. It is a Tibetan Buddhist temple built by the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo.

In the main hall of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, there is a 12-year-old life-size statue of Sakyamuni, which enjoys the rarest honor in the world. Over the past 600 years, many Buddhists have traveled thousands of miles to kowtow at the feet of this Buddha statue one step at a time to express their extreme devotion to the Buddha. To this day, thousands of believers still worship in front of this statue every day. The stone slab in front of the statue is rubbed as smooth as a mirror by the believers' bodies. When Sakyamuni was still alive, his disciples specially asked craftsmen to make four 8-year-old statues and four 12-year-old statues for him in order to pass on his true appearance to future generations. Because Sakyamuni's wet nurse and others were there to guide him, the statue closely resembled him.

The Jokhang Temple was originally called "Resa", and later Resa became the name of the city and evolved into the current "Lhasa".

The Jokhang Temple is the most glorious existing Tibetan-era building in Tibet. It is also the earliest civil structure building in Tibet and pioneered the Tibetan Pingchuan-style temple and municipal regulations. The circle around the Sakyamuni Buddha Hall in the center of the Jokhang Temple is called "Nangkuo", the circle around the outer wall of Jokhang Temple is called "Bakuo", and the streets radiating out from the Jokhang Temple are called "Bakuo Street", that is, Bajiao Street. . With the Jokhang Temple as the center and including the Potala Palace, Yaowang Mountain and Ramoche Temple, the large circle is called "Lin Kuo". These three rings from the inside to the outside are the routes used by Tibetans to perform prayer rituals.

The Jokhang Temple combines Tibetan, Tang, Nepalese and Indian architectural styles and has become an eternal model of Tibetan religious architecture.

Agudengba and Lacuo went to the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple together.

In the evening, Agudengba and Latso chatted about Tibetan temples.

Agudemba said:

Tibet is a place with a very strong Tibetan Buddhist atmosphere, but the three major temples in Tibet are not familiar to people.

For example, when it comes to Ganden Monastery in Tibet, some people may not know it. In fact, Ganden Monastery was built by Tsongkhapa himself, the founder of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism, in 1409. It can be said to be the ancestral temple of the Gelug sect.

Ganden Monastery is located on Wangbo Ri Mountain at an altitude of 3,800 meters on the south bank of the Lhasa River in Dazi County, Lhasa, 57 kilometers away from Lhasa. The temple stands next to the mountain, with overlapping buildings, majestic and majestic. The entire building complex consists of the Buddhist Hall, Lazhang Palace, Monastery Dracang and Rice Village and its ancillary building units. The temple contains rich and precious historical relics, including an armor studded with gold and silver jewels and written in four languages: Han, Manchu, Mongolian and Tibetan, which was given to the temple by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty in 1757, a national special cultural relic, and a Tibetan armor written in pure gold. The entire set of "Ganyur" Buddhist scriptures in the "Tibetan Sutra", the complete set of twenty-four Kesi Thangka "Tang Embroidery" composed of the sixteen Arhats and the four heavenly kings, etc., these cultural relics all display the Ming and Qing dynasties. Close relationship between the central government and local Tibet. Twenty-four of them will be displayed for three weeks, forming the grand annual "Gandan Embroidery and Tang Festival" in the temple.

Agudengba said again:

Drepung Monastery in Tibet is the largest of the six major Gelug sect temples. This temple is also a temple with many famous monks and great virtues. The fifth Dalai Lama has been stationed here for a long time. It was not until he was canonized by the Qing emperor and the Potala Palace was expanded that he moved to Lhasa.

Drepung Monastery is located on the southern slope of Genpeiwu Mountain, ten kilometers west of Lhasa City, with an altitude of 3,800 meters. It is built layer by layer along the mountain, covering an area of about 200,000 square meters. Founded in 1416 AD by Jiangyang Quji and Tashi Bandan, disciples of founder Tsongkhapa, it is the largest temple in Tibetan Buddhism. There are six main sutra halls in the temple: Ganden Phodrang, Cuoqin Hall, Tantra Hall, Losailin Hall, Guomang Hall and Deyang Hall. The main Buddha statues include: Maitreya Buddha, Vajra Horror, Immovable Buddha, as well as Kangyur written in gold, Battle Buddha, etc. It has a long history, and is unique in the world. There are also countless precious cultural relics such as various gold-plated Buddha statues and Buddhist scriptures. .

Agudengba pointed to the foothills of Serawuzi Mountain in the distance in the north and said:

The full name of Tibet's Sera Monastery is "Sela Mahayana Monastery". It is located at the foothills of Sera Uze Mountain 3 kilometers away from the northern suburbs of Lhasa. It was built in 1419 AD by Tsongkhapa's disciple Jiangqin Choeji. The full name of Sera Monastery is Sera Mahayana Monastery. It is one of the six protagonists of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. There are tens of thousands of Vajra Buddha statues in the temple, most of which are made locally in Tibet. There are also some bronze Buddha statues brought from the mainland or India. There are a large number of original colorful murals preserved in the main hall of Sera Temple and the four walls of various Zhacang Jingtang. The most famous statue in Sera Temple is the "Statue of Horse-headed King" in the main hall.

Agudengpa and Lacuo agreed: Starting from tomorrow, we will visit Ganden Monastery, Drepung Monastery, and Sera Monastery.

Agudenba looked at the surging Brahmaputra River and sang an impromptu song "Yarlung Zangbo River, I love you":

 

Brahmaputra, I love you,

You flow down from the snow-capped mountains,

You are our mother river,

I am the snowdrop who loves you.

 

Snow water flowing down from the mountains,

It is the title of Brahmaputra.

You originated in the Himalayas,

Ma Rongzang cloth cut Ma Rongdong.

You flowed through the roof of the world,

Across southern Tibet from west to east.

Passing through the eastern end of the Himalayas,

Surrounding Namjagbarwa Peak,

After turning, it turns to flow south.

Out of the country from Basika.

flowing into India's Sathiya,

After arriving in Bangladesh,

And it merges with the Ganges River,

Finally it empties into the Bay of Bengal.

 

Brahmaputra, I love you,

You turn snow from mountains into water,

You are the great mother river,

You are our source of happiness.