Yumbulhakang Palace

Brief Introduction of Yumbulhakang

Yumbulhakang is 5 kilometers southeast from Nedong County, located at the northern bank of Yalong River, and on the top of Zaxiciri Mountain. It is said that the Zaxiciri Mountain looks like the hind leg of a doe, and the Palace is built on the hind leg, so people named the Palace as Yumbulhakang Palace ("Yumbu" means the doe, "lha" means the hind leg and "kang" means palace). Though the scale of the palace is not large, it is perched on top of the mountain and looks down from a height, so the palace is still spectacular.It is said that Yumbulhakang is the earliest building, and originally, it was not a temple, but the palace of the leader of the early Yalong tribe, which was said to be the first palace of Tibet in the history. People say that it was built in the second century B.C by the Ben Hindus for the first Tibetan king, Nyetri Tsanpo, and then it became the summer palace of Songtsen Gampo and princess Wencheng at Shannan. At the 5th Dalai, it was changed to shamanism temple.

The Structure of Yumbulhakang Building

The structure of the building can be classified in three parts.The first one is the bunker building. The bunker building is located at the eastern side, which is said to be the earliest building built by Nyetri Tsanpo. The bunker has a height of 11 meters, a length of 3.5 meters and a width of 4.6 meters. The upper is smaller than the lower. From the appearance, we may think there are five floors, but actually, there are only three floors. The first floor is 1.2 meters high, and the 0.6-meter-wide passage leads to the Xumi seats of the palace. The second floor has a small door, which may lead you to the top of the floor. Before, the third floor has a golden dome of the 5th Dalai. The building has thick walls and the interior is small, with the first floor 2.28 square meters, the second and third 4.18 square meters. With such small urban area, it can not be the palace of the Tsanpo for 30 generations. So there must have been some other palaces of larger area and the palace we see today is only a small part of the relics.

The second part is the palace hall and is said to be built by Songtsen Gampo. Originally, the palace hall had got 3 floors, but after the reconstruction, with 2 floors now. The front section of the first floor is the entrance hall, which is 6.3 meters wide and 5.2 meters long. There is no Buddha statue or other facilities in the hall. When you go on, you will get to the chapel, with 6.3 meters wide, 9.3 meters long and 8 pillars. In the eastern part, along the three walls, there is hollow Xumizuo. All the Buddha statues have been destroyed. According to the records of Tibetan cultural relics by Wangyi, there were three statues in the chapel, on the north wall, there were Songtsen Gampo and Trison Detsen, and on the south wall, there were Princess Wencheng and Chizun. There were 9 statues all in all, all of which are delicay in style and homeliness in model. Let's take Sakya for example, the face of Sakya is wide and short, the eyes of Sakya are narrow and long, and the ears are at the upper part of the face, all of which were the molding features of the earlier Tibet. On the second floor, there are two parts as well. The front part had two rooms, the northern one was empty and the southern one is the staircase. At the back part, in the middle, there is a Gefochu, in which there were the copper statues of Maitreya,Tsongkhapa, Buddha Mother, Padmasambhava and Manjusri. In the front, there were four statues of vajrapani.

The third part is the monk's dormitory and other subsidiary buildings. The monk's dormitory is at the south part of the palace, and at the entrance hall, there are two doors at the east and south part. When you get out of the door and walk east down the stairs, you may get to the monk's dormitory. The second floor near the palace hall is the bedroom of the Dalais in the weekend, which has been restored.

Nearby Tourist Attractions

400 meters northeast of Yumbulhakang, there is a ravine, where lays a spring never dries up. The spring was said to be found out by Gaerdongzan, so people named the spring as Ga spring. Whoever goes to Yumbulhakang would pay a visit to the Ga spring, and people say the water of the spring can cure all the illnesses.

It is said that around Yumbulhakang, there are six longevities, mountain, water, deer, bird, human being and tree. But nowadays we only can see mountain and water. The mountain is the Laxiciri Mountain and the water is the small puddle, it is said that even in the drought time, the water won't dry up, really amazing. But people pay attention to it is not because of its amazement, but because of Yumbulhakang.