The Power Places of Central Tibet

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Registered: 12-12-2005
The Power Places of Central Tibet
Mon, 12-12-2005 - 3:26pm

The Power Places of Central Tibet by Keith Dowman

I spent the summers of 1985-87 wandering about Central Tibet visiting the pilgrimage destinations mentioned by the august Khampa pilgrim Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, in his Tibetan guidebook. This book, The Power Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide is the result of that arduous trip in which trekking, hitch-hiking, tractor rides, horse riding and even a goat ride all moved me on. During those years rebuilding of the gompas was progressing fast and althought the desolation of the ruins and paranoia of the people was still evident it was an exciting time to be in Tibet. Researching the Guide was a ground breaking exercise as few Europeans had been off the main highways and I was the first foreigner to enter some valleys. The book remains a milestone in the history of pilgrimage in Tibet.
Read more at :
http://www.keithdowman.net/books/ppct.htm

‘For those visitors to Tibet with time to visit the more remote temples and caves The Pilgrim's Guide is indispensable. It is written in a style that is accessible to the interested layman as well as the Buddhist scholar.’ A.B.Rowe in the Geographical Journal

Contents of Power Places of Central Tibet

Preface
Introduction
1. The Yoga of Pilgrimage
2. The Condition of the Gompas
3. 'The Western Storehouse'
4. An Outline of the History of Central Tibet
5. The Schools of Tibetan Buddhism
Notes on Pronunciation and Tibetan Names
Note on Cartography
Glossary of Geographical Terms and Key to Maps
1 The Holy City of Lhasa
2 The Caves of Drak Yerpa
3 North of Lhasa to Reteng
4 To Ganden and Beyond
5 The Drigung Mandala
6 Tolung: The Karmapa's Domain
7 The Highway from Lhasa to Chaksam Bridge
8 Below Lhasa to Simpo Ri
9 The South Bank of the Tsangpo
10 The Upper Dranang and Drachi Valleys
11 Yarlung: The Heart of Tibet
12 Chongye and the Royal Tombs
13 Dorje Drak and the Caves of Drakyul
14 Samye Chokor
15 The Valley of Yon
16 Sangri and The Woka Valley
17 Dakpo and Lhamo Latso
18 Across Tsang to the Nepal Border
Appendixes
I The Supine Demoness
II Guru Rimpoche's Cave Power-places
III Power-places with Treasure Troves
IV The Lume Temples
V Some Principal Kadampa Gompas
VI The Original Kagyu Gompas
Notes to the Text
Glossary of Tibetan Terms
Visual Glossary of Buddhas
Index

Preface to the Power Places of Central Tibet

This pilgrims' guide is based upon Khyentse's Guide to the Holy Places of Central Tibet. Jamyang Kyentse Wangpo (1820-92), a Khampa lama, made frequent, extended pilgrimages to Central Tibet and wrote his guide at the end of a long life as a contribution to the old and popular genre of Tibetan literature called neyik, guides to pilgrimage. Kyentse Rimpoche was no ordinary lama. One of the greatest figures in the eastern Tibetan eclectic renaissance of the last century, his scholarship and wisdom combined to give his work the highest mark of authority and integrity. His Guide was translated into English and partially annotated by the noted Italian scholar Alfonsa Ferrari, who never visited the East and who died before she could complete her work. The annotation was completed by another Italian scholar, Luciano Petech. His contribution was augmented by Hugh Richardson, the last British Resident in Lhasa. Richardson's clear, concise additions to the notes, detailing observations compiled during his wide travels in Central Tibet over several years, are of vital importance for information on the pre-1959 state of various monasteries. For their annotation, the Italian scholars relied heavily on the accounts of their master, Giuseppe Tucci, derived from his short journey to Central Tibet in 1948.

Khyentse's Guide covers Central, Southern and Western Tibet. The scope of this Pilgrim's Guide is limited to Central Tibet, the old province of �, which includes the Kyichu Valley system and the reaches of the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) in its passage from Chaksam to Kongpo. Lhasa is the centre of the province and the places described herein are all within a radius of 250 km from Lhasa, except those listed in the chapter "Across Tsang to the Nepal Border". During the summer seasons of 1986-8 I visited most of the approximately 170 power-places in Central Tibet mentioned in Khyentse's Guide. Information on the majority of his sites omitted from our itineraries (about thirteen) has been supplied by other pilgrims. Those very few places about which I have no contemporary information are so indicated in the text. Each entry in this Pilgrim's Guide enlarges upon the topics that concerned Kyentse Rimpoche: location and chief features of the site, cherished relics and treasures, and the history and importance of the place. Kyentse Rimpoche's description of the temples, images and treasures of the monasteries has permitted a useful comparison between what existed before 1959 and what now remains after the Cultural Revolution. Historical information about the power-places was derived from Khyentse's Guide, from various literary sources (see Bibliography) and from informants at the holy places.

Although Kyentse Rimpoche was involved in an eclectic renaissance, the gompas and shrines built by the Yellow Hats did not form any significant part of his pilgrimage itineraries. He was concerned mainly with the age-old power-places of the Red Hats, not with the relatively recent academies of the Gelukpa School. He mentions the great monastic foundations of Tsongkapa and his disciples - Ganden, Drepung, Sera, and also Chokorgyel for example - but he ignores most of the later Gelukpa monasteries. A few significant ancient power-places were unaccountably omitted from Kyentse's pilgrimages and these have been included here. The main inadequacy of Khyentse's Guide is its brevity. Its principal function was to locate and identify and merely to indicate historical associations and contemporary conditions, rather than to describe and comment upon them. In so far as space allows, that description and commentary has been added here.

The chief purpose of this work is identical to that of Kyentse Rimpoche - to indicate the location and significance of the principal power-places of Central Tibet in the hope that such information may be of practical use to pilgrims. Most of the valley sites are now accessible by jeep-road, although the cave power-places can only be approached by foot. It is also intended that this Pilgrim's Guide will complement studies in the historical geography of Tibet and provide additional information and correct old misconceptions.

In so far as this Pilgrim's Guide is based upon short visits to each site, the information accrued is sometimes partial and lacking corroboration, and insofar as rebuilding, restoration and the gathering in of religious artefacts is still in process The Pilgrim's Guide will require constant updating. We would be grateful to receive corrections and any additional information, particularly concerning those places that went unvisited, for future editions. Please write to the author care of the publisher.

I would like to thank all the Tibetans who spontaneously extended generous and gracious hospitality to us while on pilgrimage, and also to thank the Tibetan guides and informants, monks and laymen, who with great patience and generosity in time and spirit gave us information. I have become indebted to a host of people during the preparation of this book, so many that it is impossible to mention them all by name. In particular, however, I would like to thank Heather Stoddard-Karmay, A. Bradley Rowe, Victor Chen, Steve McGuinness, Katie Hetts, Brot Coburn and Edward Henning; Stone Routes, Raphaele Demandre, Brian Beresford and Ian Baker for their black and white photographs; Meryl White for the maps and line-drawings; and Lokesh Chandra for use of selected line-drawings of Buddhas and Lamas from the charts Three Hundred Icons of Tibet. Finally, I acknowledge a deep debt of gratitude to my Lama, Dilgo Kyentse Rimpoche, who supported this project and wrote a foreword to the book.