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LHASA (LIIASSA, LASSA, " God's ground ")
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See also:LHASA (LIIASSA, LASSA, " See also:God's ground ") , the See also:capital of See also:Tibet. It lies in 29° 39' N., 91° 5' E., 11,830 ft. above See also:sea-level. Owing to the inaccessibility of Tibet and the See also:political and religious exclusiveness of the lamas, Lhasa was See also:long closed to See also:European travellers, all of whom during the latter See also:half of the 19th See also:century were stopped in their attempts to reach it. It was popularly known as the " Forbidden See also:City." But its See also:chief features were known by the accounts of the earlier Romish missionaries who visited it and by the investigations, in See also:modern times, of native See also:Indian See also:secret explorers, and others, and the See also:British armed See also:mission of 1904 (see TIBET). Site and See also:General Aspect.—The city stands in a tolerably level See also:plain, which is surrounded on all sides by hills. Along its Modern construction, High tension condensers. See also:southern See also:side, about z m. See also:south of Lhasa, runs a considerable See also:river called the Kyichu (Ki-chu) or Kyi, flowing here from E.N.E., and joining the See also:great Tsangpo (or upper course of the See also:Brahmaputra) some 38 M. to the south-See also:west. The hills See also:round the city are barren. The plain, however, is fertile, though in parts marshy. There are gardens scattered over it round the city, and these are planted with See also:fine trees. The city is screened from view from the west by a rocky See also:ridge, lofty and narrow, with summits at the See also:north and south, the one flanked and crowned by the majestic buildings of Potala, the chief See also:residence of the Dalai lama, the other by the See also:temple of See also:medicine. Groves, gardens and open ground intervene between this ridge and the city itself for a distance of about r m. A See also:gate through the centre of the ridge gives See also:access from the west; the road thence to the north See also:part of the city throws off a See also:branch to the Yutok sampa or See also:turquoise-tiled covered See also:bridge, one of the noted features of Lhasa, which crosses a former channel of the Kyi, and carries
the road to the centre of the See also:town.
The city is nearly circular in See also:form, and less than 1 m. in dia-
See also:meter. It was walled in the latter part of the 17th century, but the walls were destroyed during the See also:Chinese occupation in 1722. The chief streets are fairly straight, but generally of no great width. There is no paving or See also:metal, nor any drainage See also:system, so that the streets are dirty and in parts often flooded. The inferior quarters are unspeakably filthy, and are rife with evil smells and large mangy See also:dogs and pigs. Many of the houses are of See also:clay and See also:sun-dried See also:brick, but those of the richer See also:people are of See also: Externally the See also:lower part generally presents dead walls (the ground See also:floor being occupied by stables and similar apartments); above these rise tiers of large windows with or without projecting balconies, and over all See also:flat broad-eaved See also:roofs at varying levels. In the better houses there are often spacious and well-finished apartments, and the See also:principal halls, the verandahs and terraces are often highly ornamented in brilliant See also:colours. In every See also:house there is a See also:kind of See also:chapel or See also:shrine, carved and gilt, on which are set images and
sacred books.
Temples and Monasteries.—In the centre of the city is an open square which forms the chief See also:market-See also:place. Here is the great temple The of the " Jo " or See also:Lord See also:Buddha, called the Jokhang,t Jokhang regarded as the centre of all Tibet, from which all the See also:main
roads are considered to radiate. This is the great See also:metropolitan See also:sanctuary and See also: An inner See also:door with enclosed See also:vestibule gives access to the quadrangular See also:choir or See also:chancel, as it may be called, though its centre is open to the See also:sky. On either side of it are three chapels, and at the extremity is the rectangular " See also:holy of holies," flanked by two gilded images of the See also:corning Buddha, and screened by lattice-See also:work. In it is the shrine on which sits the great See also:image of Sakya, set about with small
' The name given by Koppen (See also:Die lamaische Kirche, See also:Berlin, 1859, p. 74) is " La Brang," by which it is sometimes known.figures, lamps and a variety of offerings, and richly jewelled, though the workmanship of the whole is crude. In the second and third storeys of the temple are shrines and representations of a number of gods and goddesses. The temple contains a vast See also:accumulation of images, See also:gold and See also:silver vessels, lamps, reliquaries and See also:precious bric-a-brae of every kind. The daily offices are attended by crowds of worshippers, and a sacred way which leads round the main building is constantly traversed by devotees who perform the See also:circuit as a work of merit, always in a particular direction. The temple was found by the members of the British mission who visited it to be exceedingly dirty, and the See also:atmosphere was foul with the fumes of See also:butter-lamps.
Besides the See also:convent-cells, halls of study and magazines of precious See also:lumber, buildings grouped about the Jokhang are occupied by the See also:civil See also:administration, e.g. as treasuries, customs See also:office, courts of See also:justice, &c., and there are also private apartments for the grand lama and other high functionaries. No woman is permitted to pass the See also:night within the See also:precinct.
In front of the main entrance to the Jokhang, in the See also:shadow of a sacred See also:willow See also:tree, stands a famous See also:monument, the Dosing monolith, which bears the inscribed See also:record of a treaty of See also:peace concluded in 822 (or, according to another view, in 783) between the See also: The famous Potala See also: This temple, called Lu-kang, is circular in form, with a loggia or portico See also:running all round and adorned with paintings. Its name, " the See also:serpent house," comes from the tradition of a serpent or See also:dragon, which dwelt here and must be propitiated lest it should cause the See also:waters to rise and See also:flood Lhasa. Another great and famous temple is Ramo-che, at the north side of the city. This is also regarded as a foundation of wrong-tsangampo, and is said to contain the See also:body of his Chinese wife and the second of the primeval palladia, the image that she brought with her to the See also:Snow-See also:land; whence it is known as the " small Jokhang." This temple is noted for the practice of magical arts. Its buildings are in a neglected See also:condition. Another monastery within the city is that of Moru, also on the north side, remarkable for its See also:external See also:order and cleanliness. Though famous as a school of orthodox magic, it is noted also for the See also:printing-house in the convent See also:garden. This convent was the temporary residence of the See also:regent during the visit of the British mission in 1904. Other monasteries in or near the city are the Tsaino See also:Ling or Chomoling at the north-west corner; the Tangya Ling or Tengyeling at the west of the city; the Kunda Ling or Kundeling about 1 m. west of the city, at the See also:foot of a See also:low isolated hill called Chapochi. Three See also:miles south, beyond the river, is the Tsemchog Ling or Tsecholing. These four convents are known as " The Four Ling." From their inmates the Dalai lama's regent, during his minority, was formerly chosen. The temple of medicine, as already stated, crowns the summit (Chagpa) at the end of the ridge west of the city, opposite to that on which stands the Potala. It is natural that in a See also:country possessing a religious system like that of Tibet the medical profession should form a branch of the priesthood. " The treatment of disease, though based in some measure upon a judicious use of the commoner See also:simple drugs of the country, is, as was inevitable amongst so superstitious a people, saturated with absurdity " (Waddell, Lhasa and its Mysteries). The three great monasteries in the vicinity of Lhasa, all claiming to be See also:foundations of Tsongkhapa (1356-1418), the See also:medieval reformer and organizer of the modern orthodox Lama Church, " the yellow caps," are the following: I. Debung (written 'See also:Bras spungs) is 6 m. west of Lhasa at the foot of the hills which flank the plain on the north. It is one of the largest monasteries in the See also:world, having some 8000 monks. In the middle of the convent buildings rises a kind of See also:pavilion, brilliant with colour and See also:gilding, which is occupied by the Dalai Lama when he visits Debung once a See also:year and expounds to the inmates. The place is frequented by the Mongol students who come to Lhasa to See also:graduate, and is known in the country as the Mongol convent; it has also been notorious as a centre of political intrigue. Near it is the seat of the chief magician of Tibet, the Nachung Chos-kyong, a building picturesque in itself and in situation. 2. Sera is 3 M. north of the city on the acclivity of the hills and close to the road by which pilgrims enter from See also:Mongolia. From a distance the See also:crowd of buildings and temples, rising in See also:amphitheatre against a background of rocky mountains, forms a pleasing picture. In the recesses of the hill, high above the convent, are scattered cells of lamas adopting the solitary See also:life. The chief temple of Sera, a highly ornate building, has a See also:special reputation as the resting-place of a famous Dorje, i.e. the Vajra or Thunderbolt of See also:Jupiter, the See also:symbol of the strong and indestructible, which the See also:priest grasps and manipulates in various ways during prayer. The See also:emblem is a See also:bronze See also:instrument, shaped much like a dumbbell with pointed ends, and it is carried solemnly in procession to the Jokhang during the New Year's festival. The hill adjoining Sera is believed to be rich in silver ore, but it is not allowed to be worked. On the summit is a See also:spring and a holy place of the Lhasa Mahommedans, who resort thither. Near the monastery there is said to be gold, which is worked by the monks. " Should they . . . discover a nugget of large See also:size, it is immediately replaced in the See also:earth, under the impression that the large nuggets ... germinate in See also:time, producing the small lumps which they are privileged to See also:search for " (Nain Singh). 3. Galdan.—This great convent is some 25 M. See also:east of Lhasa, on the other side of the Kyichu. It is the See also:oldest monastery of the Yellow " See also:sect, having been founded by Tsongkhapa and having had him for its first See also:superior. Here his body is said to be preserved with miraculous circumstances; here is his See also:tomb, of See also:marble and See also:malachite, with a great shrine said to be of gold, and here are other See also:relics of him, such as the impression of his hands and feet. Samye is another famous convent intimately connected with Lhasa, being said to be used as a See also:treasury by the See also:government, but it lies some 36 m. south-east on the left See also:bank of the great Tsangpo. It was founded in 770, and is the oldest extant monastery in Tibet. It is surrounded by a very high circular stone See also:wall, 11 m. in circumference, with gates facing the four points of the See also:compass. On this wall Nain Singh, who was here on his See also:journey in 1874, counted 1030 votive piles of brick. One very large temple occupies the centre, and round it are four smaller but still large temples. Many of the idols are said to be of pure gold, and the See also:wealth is very great. The interiors of the temples are covered with beautiful See also:writing in enormous characters, which the vulgar believe to be the writing of $akya himself. See also:Population and See also:Trade.—The See also:total population of Lhasa, including the lamas in the city and vicinity, is probably about 30,000; a See also:census in 1854 made the figure 42,000, but it is known to have greatly decreased since. There are only some 1500 See also:resident Tibetan laymen and about 5500 Tibetan See also:women. The permanent population embraces, besides Tibetans, settled families of Chinese (about 2000 persons), as well as people from See also:Nepal, from Ladak, and a few from Bhotan and Mongolia. The Ladakis and some of the other foreigners are Mahommedans, and much of the trade is in their hands. Desideri (1716) speaks also of Armenians and even " Muscovites." The Chinese have a crowded See also:burial-ground at Lhasa, tended carefully after their manner. The Nepalese (about 800) See also:supply the See also:mechanics and metal-workers. There are among them excellent gold- and silversmiths; and they make the elaborate gilded canopies crowning the temples. The chief See also:industries are the See also:weaving of a great variety of stuffs from the fine Tibetan See also:wool; the making of earthenware and of the wooden porringers (varying immensely in elaboration and See also:price) of which every Tibetan carries one about with him; also the making of certain fragrant sticks of See also:incense much valued in China and elsewhere.
As Lhasa is not only the See also:nucleus of a cluster of vast monastic establishments, which attract students and aspirants to the religious life from all parts of Tibet and Mongolia, but is also a great place of See also:pilgrimage, the streets and public places swarm with visitors from every part of the Himalayan See also:plateau,' and from all the See also:steppes of See also:Asia between See also:Manchuria and the Balkhash Lake. Naturally a great See also:traffic arises quite apart from the
' Among articles sold in the Lhasa bazaars are fossil bones, called by the people " See also:lightning bones," and believed to have healing virtues.pilgrimage. The ,city thus swarms with crowds attracted by devotion and the love of gain, and presents a great diversity of See also:language, See also:costume and See also:physiognomy; though, in regard to the last point, varieties of the broad See also:face and narrow See also:eye greatly predominate. Much of the See also:retail trade of the place is in the hands of the women. The curious practice of the women in plastering their faces with a dark-coloured pigment is less See also:common in Lhasa than in the provinces.
During See also:December especially traders arrive from western China by way of See also:Tachienlu bringing every variety of See also:silk-stuffs, carpets, china-See also:ware and See also:tea; from Siningfu come silk, gold See also:lace, See also:Russian goods, carpets of a superior kind, semi-precious stones, See also:horse See also:furniture, horses and a very large breed of See also:fat-tailed sheep; from eastern Tibet, See also:musk in large quantities, which eventually finds its way to See also:Europe through Nepal; from Bhotan and See also:Sikkim, See also:rice; from Sikkim also See also:tobacco; besides a variety of Indian and European goods from Nepal and See also:Darjeeling, and charas (resinous exudation of See also:hemp) and See also:saffron from Ladakh and See also:Kashmir. The merchants leave Lhasa in See also: No doubt a large part of this comes to Lhasa.
Lhasa Festivities.—The greatest of these is at the new year. This lasts fifteen days, and is a kind of lamaic See also:carnival, in which masks and mummings, wherein the Tibetans take especial delight, See also:play a great part. The celebration commences at midnight, with shouts and clangour of bells, gongs, chank-shells, drums and all the noisy repertory of Tibetan See also:music; whilst See also:friends See also:exchange See also:early visits and administer coarse sweetmeats and buttered tea. On the second See also:day the Dalai Lama gives a grand banquet, at which the Chinese and native authorities are See also:present, whilst in the public spaces and in front of the great convents all sorts of shows and jugglers' performances go on. Next day a See also:regular Tibetan See also:exhibition takes place. A long See also:cable, See also:twisted of See also:leather thongs, is stretched from a high point in the battlements of Potala slanting down to the plain, where it is strongly moored. Two men slide from See also:top to bottom of this huge hypothenuse, sometimes lying on the See also:chest (which is protected by a See also:breast-See also:plate of strong leather), spreading their arms as if to swim, and descending with the rapidity of an arrow-See also:flight. Occasionally fatal accidents occur in this performance, which is called " the See also:dance of the gods "; but the survivors are rewarded by the See also:court, and the Grand Lama himself is always a See also:witness of it. This practice occurs more or less over the Himalayan plateau, and is known in the neighbourhood of the See also:Ganges as Barat. It is employed as a kind of expiatory rite in cases of pestilence and the like. Exactly the same performance is described as having been exhibited in St See also:Paul's Church-yard before King See also:Edward VI., and again before See also: 198). The most remarkable celebration of the new year's festivities is the great See also:jubilee of the Monlam (sMon-lam, " prayer "), instituted by Tsongkhapa himself in 1408. Lamas from all parts of Tibet, but chiefly from the great convents in the neighbourhood, See also:flock to Lhasa, and every road leading thither is thronged with troops of monks on foot or horseback, on yaks or donkeys, carrying with them their breviaries and their cooking-pots. Those who cannot find lodging See also:bivouac in the streets and squares, or See also:pitch their little See also:black tents in the plain. The festival lasts six days, during which there reigns a kind of saturnalia. Unspeakable confusion and disorder reign, while gangs of lamas See also:parade the streets, shouting, singing and coming to blows. The See also:object of this gathering is, however, supposed to be devotional. Vast processions take place, with mystic offerings and lama-music, to the Jokhang and Moru convents; the Grand Lama himself assists at the festival, and from an elevated throne beside the Jokhang receives the offerings of the multitude and bestows his See also:benediction. On the 15th of the first See also:month multitudes of torches are kept ablaze, which lighten up the city to a great distance, whilst the interior of the Jokhang is illuminated throughout the night by in-numerable lanterns shedding See also:light on coloured figures in bas-See also:relief, framed in arabesques of animals, birds and See also:flowers, and representing the See also:history of Buddha and other subjects, all modelled in butter. The figures are executed on a large See also:scale, and, as described by See also:Hue, who witnessed the festival at Kunbum on the frontier of China, with extraordinary truth and skill. These singular See also:works of See also:art occupy some months in preparation, and on the morrow are thrown away. On other days horse-races take place from Sera to Potala, and foot-races from Potala to the city. On the 27th of the month the holy Dorje is carried in See also:solemn procession from ;Sera to the Jokhang, and to the presence of the lama at Potala.
Of other great See also:annual feasts, one, in the See also:fourth month, is assigned to the conception of Sakya, but appears to connect itself with the old nature-feast of the entering of spring, and to be more or less identical with the Huai of See also:India. A second, the See also:consecration of the waters, in See also:September–See also:October, appears, on the confines of India, to be associated with the Dasehra.
On the 3oth day of the second month there takes place a See also:strange ceremony, akin to that of the scapegoat (which is not unknown in India). It is called the See also:driving out of the demon. A See also:man is hired to perform the part of demon (or victim rather), a part which sometimes ends fatally. He is fantastically dressed, his face mottled with white and black, and is then brought forth from the Jokhang to engage in quasi-theological controversy with one who represents the Grand Lama. This ends in their throwing See also:dice against each other (as it were for the weal or woe of Lhasa). If the demon were to win the See also:omen would be appalling; so this is effectually barred by false dice. The victim is then marched outside the city, followed by the troops and by the whole populace, hooting, shouting and firing volleys after him. Once he is driven off, the people return, and he is carried off to the Samye convent. Should he die shortly after, this is auspicious; if not, he is kept in See also: Nain Singh, whose habitual accuracy is attested by many facts, mentions a strange practice of comparatively See also:recent origin, according to which the civil See also:power in the city is put up to See also:auction for the first twenty-three days of the new year. The purchaser, who must be a member of the Debung monastery, and is termed the Jalno, is a kind of lord of See also:misrule, who exercises arbitrary authority during that time for his own benefit, levying taxes and capricious fines upon the citizens. History.—The seat of the princes whose See also:family raised Tibet to a position among the See also:powers of Asia was originally on the Yarlung river, in the extreme east of the region now occupied by Tibetan tribes. It was transplanted to Lhasa in the 7th century by the king Srong-tsan-gampo, conqueror, civilizer and proselytizer, the founder of See also:Buddhism in Tibet, the introducer of the Indian See also:alphabet. On the three-peaked See also:crag now occupied by the palace-monastery of the Grand Lama this king is said to have established his fortress, while he founded in the plain below temples to receive the sacred images, brought respectively from Nepal and from China by the brides to whom his own conversion is attributed. Tibet endured as a conquering power some two centuries, and the more famous among the descendants of the founder added to the city. This-rong-de-tsan (who reigned 740–786) is said to have erected a great temple-palace of which the See also:basement followed the Tibetan See also:style, the middle See also:storey the Chinese, and the upper storey the Indian—a See also:combination which would aptly symbolize the elements that have moulded the culture of Lhasa. His son, the last of the great orthodox See also:kings, in the next century, is said to have summoned artists from Nepal and India, and among many splendid foundations to have erected` a sanctuary (at Samye) of vast height, which had nine storeys, the three lower of stone, the three middle of brick, the three uppermost of timber. With this king the See also:glory of Tibet and of See also:ancient Lhasa reached its See also:zenith, and in 822, a monument recording his treaty on equal terms with the Great T'ang emperor of China was erected in the city. There followed dark days for Lbasa and the Buddhist church in the See also:accession of this king's brother Langdharma, who has been called the See also:Julian of the lamas. This king rejected the See also:doctrine, persecuted and scattered its ministers, and threw down its temples, convents and images. It was more than a century before Buddhism recovered its hold and its convents were rehabilitated over Tibet. The country was then split into an infinity of See also:petty states, many of them ruled from the convents by warlike ecclesiastics; but, though the old monarchy never recovered, Lhasa seems to have maintained some supremacy, and probably never lost its claim to be the chief city of that congeries of principalities, with a common faith and a common language, which was called Tibet. The Arab geographers of the loth century speak of Tibet, but without real knowledge, and none speaks of any city that we can identify with Lhasa. The first passage in any Western author in which such See also:identification can be probably traced occurs in the narrative of See also:Friar See also:Odoric of Pordenon.e (c. 1330). This remarkable traveller's route from Europe to India, and thence'by sea to China, can be traced satisfactorily, but of his journey homeward through Asia the indications are very fragmentary. He speaks, however, on this return journey of the See also:realm of Tibet, which See also:lay on the confines of India proper: " The folk of that country dwell in tents made of black See also:felt. But the chief and royal city is all built with walls of black and white, and all its streets are very well paved. In this city no one shall dare to See also:shed the See also:blood of any, whether man or beast, for the reverence they See also:bear a certain idol that is there worshipped. In that city dwelleth the Abassi, i.e. in their See also:tongue the See also:pope, who is the See also:head of all the idolaters, and has the disposal of all their benefices such as they are after their manner." We know that Kublai See also:Khan had constituted a See also:young See also:prince of the Lama Church, Mati Dhwaja, as head of that body, and tributary ruler of Tibet, but besides this all is obscure for a century. This passage of Odoric shows that such authority continued under Kublai's descendants, and that some foreshadow of the position since occupied by the Dalai Lama already existed. But it was not till a century after Odoric that the strange See also:heredity of the See also:dynasty of the Dalai Lamas of Lhasa actually began. In the first two centuries of its existence the residence of these pontiffs was rather at Debung or Sera than at Lhasa itself, though the latter was the centre of devout resort. A great event for Lhasa was the conversion, or reconversion, of the See also:Mongols to Lamaism (c. 1577), which made the city the See also:focus'of sanctity and pilgrimage to so vast a See also:tract of Asia. It was in the middle of the 17th century that Lhasa became the residence of the Dalai Lama. A native prince, known as the Tsangpo, with his seat at See also:Shigatse, had made himself See also:master of southern Tibet, and threatened to absorb the whole. The fifth Dalai Lama, Nagwang Lobzang, called in the aid of a See also:Kalmuck prince, Gushi Khan, from the neighbourhood of the Koko-nor, who defeated and slew the Tsangpo and made over full dominion in Tibet to the lama (1641). The latter now first established his court and built his palace on the rock-site of the fortress of the ancient monarchy, which apparently had fallen into ruin, and to this he gave the name of Potala. The founder of Potala died in 1681. He had appointed as " regent " or civil See also:administrator (Deisri, or Deba) one supposed to be his own natural son. This remarkable personage, Sangye Gyamtso, of great ambition and accomplishment, still renowned in Tibet as the author of some of the most valued works of the native literature, concealed the See also:death of his master, asserting that the latter had retired, in mystic meditation or See also:trance, to the upper See also:chambers of the palace. The government continued to be carried on in the lama's name by the regent, who leagued with Galdan Khan of See also:Dzungaria against the Chinese (Manchu) power. It was not till the great emperor Kang-hi was marching on Tibet that. the death of the lama, sixteen years before, was admitted. A solemn funeral was then performed, at which 1o8,000 lamas assisted, and a new incarnation was set up in the See also:person of a youth of fifteen, Tsangs-yang Gyamtso. This young man was the See also:scandal of the Lamaist Church in every kind of evil living and debauchery, so that he was deposed and assassinated in 1701. But it was under him and the regent Sangye Gyamtso that the Potala palace attained its present scale of grandeur, and that most of the other great buildings of Lhasa were extended and embellished. For further history and bibliography, see TIBET. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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