A broad street runs in front of the Jo khang, and the road which comes from the Pargo kaling gate terminates on its western face, and here grows a tall poplar said to have sprung from the hair of the Buddha. Beside this is the ancient stone tablet erected by the Tibetans in the ninth century to commemorate their victory over the Chinese, and which gives the text of the treaty then concluded between the Emperor of China and King Ralpachan.[1]
The magnificent temple engrossed, however, all my attention. In front of it is a tall flag-pole, at the base of which hang two yak-tails, some inscriptions, and a number of yaks and sheep-horns. In the propylon of the chief temple (Tsang khang), the heavy wooden pillars of which are three to four feet in circumference, and about twelve feet high, upwards of a hundred monks were making prostrations before the image of the Lord (Jo-vo) on a throne facing the west. This famous image of the Buddha, known as Jo-vo rinpoche, is said to have been made in Magadha during the lifetime of the great teacher.[2] Visvakarma is supposed to have made it, under the guidance of the god Indra, of an alloy of the five precious substances, gold, silver, zinc, iron, and copper, and the "five precious celestial substances," probably diamonds, rubies, lapis-lazuli, emeralds, and indranila.
The legend goes on to say that the image was in the first place sent from India to the capital of China in return for the assistance the Emperor had given the King of Magadha against the Yavanas from the west. When the Princess Konjo, daughter of the Emperor Tai-tsung, was given in marriage to the King of Tibet, she brought the image to Lhasa as a portion of her dowry.
- ↑ "Outside the gate (of the Jo khang) there is a stone pillar in a poor state of preservation: it is the tablet containing the alliance of Tang Te-tsung with his nephew. On either side of the pillar are old willows, whose aged trunks are bent and twisted like writhing dragons. It is said that they date from the Tang period." Jour. Roy. As. Soc. (new series), vol. xxiii. p. 264. This inscription bears date a.d. 783.—(W. R.)
- ↑ See I. J. Schmidt, 'Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen von Ssanang Ssetsen,' p. 35. According to Tibetan historians, this same princess (or Kung chu, her name was Chin-Cheng), the wife of King Srong-btsan gambo, introduced into Tibet, among other things, the art of pottery, grist-mills, looms, etc. Emil Schlagintweit, 'Die Könige von Tibet,' p. 49. Chinese authors (see Jour. Roy. As. Soc., vol. xxiii. p. 191) attribute to her influence the first use of winepresses, paper, ink, the Chinese almanac, and the introduction of the silkworm. This princess was not a daughter of the Emperor Tai-tsung, but a member of his family. She appears to have travelled from China to Lhasa by the Hsi-ning road, which passes by the sources of the Yellow River.—(W. R.)
