Yungbulakang Palace

According to Tibetan traditions, Yumbu Lakhang was built for the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo, who descended from the sky with his grandmother. It was probably built at the turn of the seventh and eighth centuries.[1] During the reign of the 28th king, Thothori Nyantsen, in the fifth century AD, a golden stupa, a jewel (and/or a form to the manufacture of dough-Stupas)[2] 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!"[3] Later, Yumbu Lakhang became the summer palace of the 33rd Tibetan king, Songtsen Gampo (604-650 AD) and his Chinese princess, Wencheng. After Songtsen 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[4] but was reconstructed in 1983.[5][6]

As of November 2017 the palace is undergoing $1.5m of restoration works to reinforce its crumbling wooden foundations and cracked walls. It was expected to reopen to the public in April 2018.[7]

Stupa

prayer flags on the path to Yumbulagang

Pitchfork of Death at Yumbulagang

^ Snellgrove, D.; Richardson, H. (1968). A Cultural History of Tibet. New York, London: Frederick A. Praeger. p. 51. ^ Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche: The Eight Manifestations of Guru Padmasambhva Archived 2005-01-21 at the Wayback Machine (ratna.info) ^ Eva M. Dargyay: The Rise of Esoteric Buddhism in Tibet (Delhi, Motinal Banarsidass 1979), ISBN 81-208-1577-7, S. 4. ^ Dowman (1988), p. 180. ^ Dorje (1999), p. 195. ^ Victor Chan, Tibet. Guide du pèlerin, Éditions Olizane, Genève, 1998, p. 590 : "L'actuel Yumbu Lagang est une reconstruction (1982) du bâtiment originel, preque totalement détruit pendant la Révolution culturelle. Sa tour fut si gravement endommagée que seul un morceau de sa base demeura en place". ^ "Tibet's oldest palace to undergo reconstruction work". FINDCHINA.