Yumbulakang monastery, (near) Tsetang, Xizang, CN

Raw data

“Yungbu Lakhang is located on the mountain on the eastern bank of Yarlung River and is about 11 kilometers away from Tsedang Town. Yungbu means doe and Lakhang means holy palace in Tibetan. The palace got its name since the mountain looks like a doe.
Yungbu Lakhang is the first palace in the history of Tibet and also one of the oldest constructions in Tibet. It was built in the second century B.C. It was changed to a monastery from palace during the regime of Songtsen Gambo. […]
Yungbu Lakhang was said to be the oldest architecture in Tibet. It was not a monastery but the palace of the leader of Yarlung Tribe originally.
During the reign of the 28th Tibetan King, a golden stupa, a jewel and a sutra were added to the roof of the original palace in the 5th century. Yungbu Lakhang became the summer residence of the 33rd Tibetan King – Songtsen Gambo and Princess Wencheng of Chinese Tang Dynasty.
Yungbu Lakhang became a monastery of Gelug Sect under the reign of the Fifth Dalai Lama after Songtsen Gambo moved to Potala Palace in Lhasa.
[…] Though it experienced disastrous calamity, Yungbu Lakhang has been well recovered after a two-year restoration since 1982. […]
The Castle-style Watchtower is located in the middle of the western Yungbu Lakhang. It is the tallest building in the monastery and said to be built by the first Tibetan King – Nyatri Tsenpo. It is 11 meters high, 4.6 meters long from the south to north and 3.5 meters wide from the east to the west.
It seems that the Castle-style Watchtower is a five-storey building. Actually it has only three floors. The tower is of little interior area with thick walls. The first floor only covers an area of 2.28 square meters and the left floors also covers only 4.18 square meters respectively.
[…] The Palace Hall of Yungbu Lakhang is said to be built by Songtsen Gambo. The existing Palace Hall is a two-storey building after restoration. The hallway is 6.3 meters long from the south to the north and 5.2 meters wide from the east to the west. The Buddhism Assembly in the Palace Hall is 6.3 meters wide from the south to the north and 9.3 meters from the east to the west with 8 giant supporting pillars.”
http://www.tibettour.com/tibet-attraction/yungbu-lakhang.html

“Yumbulagang (Tibetan: ‚ […], ZYPY: Yumbulhagang or Tibetan: ’[…], ZYPY: Yumbulakar; also known as Yumbu Lakhang or Yungbulakang Palace) is an ancient palace in the Yarlung Valley, Nêdong County in the vicinity of Zêtang the seat of the prefectural administration of Lhoka (Pinyin: Shannan), in the South of Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.
According to legend it was the first building in Tibet and the palace of the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo. Yungbulakang stands on a hill on the eastern bank of the Yarlung River in the Yarlung Valley of southeast Naidong County, about 192 km southeast of Lhasa, and 9 km south of Tsetang. […]
According to a legend of followers of the Bön religion, Yumbulagang was erected in the second century B.C. for the first Tibetan king Nyatri Tsenpo, descended from the sky. During the reign of the 28th king, Lha Thothori Nyantsen, in the fifth century, 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 on the roof of Yumbulagang; a voice from the sky announced: "in five generations one shall come, that understands its meaning!"[3] […] Lat 29.1441, Long 91.8002 “
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungbulakang_Palace

Input by: tmciolek, Feb 05, 2013

Final data (and their sources)

Last updated: 05 Feb 2013

Lat/Long coordinates' accuracy:
The monastery in question is assumed to be situated actually no farther than 200 m from the point defined by the coordinates below.

Location of Yumbulakang monastery, CN.

General location of the Yumbulakang monastery, CN.
Lat 29.14242 Long 91.80255
Mapping & images: Falling Rain Genomics (http://www.fallingrain.com), 2013.


Google Map link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=29.14242+91.80255+(Approx.%20loc.%20of%20the%20Yumbulakang%20monastery,%20CN)&ll=29.14242,91.80255&spn=05.0,05.0&t=k&hl=en


Final data - explanatory notes

1. Monastery's name


2. Monastery's modern country & province

  • China:Xizang Zizhiqu

3. Monastery's alternative/historical names


4. Monastery's lat/long coordinates

  • Approx. Lat 29.14242 Long 91.80255 - based on visual identification of the site in maps/satellite imagery, maps.google.com - tmciolek, 05 Feb 2013. NOTE that the coordinates Lat 29.1441 Long 91.8002 suggested by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungbulakang_Palace are incorrect.

5. Other known nearby Buddhist monasteries

  • [missing data]

6. Modern name of the known nearest city, town, or village


7. The settlement's alternative/historical names


8. The settlement's coordinates


9. Monastery's major Buddhist tradition

  • Vajrayana

10. Monastery's Buddhist sub-tradition


11. Date-early

  • MBM chrono-tag 0633-66c - tmciolek 05 Feb 2013
  • 0633-66c 0667-99c 0700-32c 0733-66c 0767-99c 0800-32c 0833-66c 0867-99c 0900-32c 0933-66c 0967-99c 1000-32c 1033-66c 1067-99c 1100-32c 1133-66c 1167-99c 1200=> dated-ex

12. Date-intermediate

  • MBM chrono-tag 1200=> - tmciolek 05 Feb 2013

13. Date-late


14. Details of contacts with other monasteries

  • [missing data]

15. Type of evidence regarding the monastery

  • [missing data]

16. Additional notes

  • [missing data] (incl. details of the size of the monastic population)

17. Corrections & addenda to this page were kindly provided by

  • [missing data]

18. Available Printed Literature

  • [bibliographical details of the Book/Article 1]
  • [bibliographical details of the Book/Article 2]
  • [bibliographical details of the Book/Article 3]

end of page

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License