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Peaceful palace where rebels plotted
By Yi Ling, Bai Xu and Yan Yuanyuan |
March 13, 2009, Friday
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NORBU Lingka, in western Lhasa, was the last residence for the 14th Dalai Lama before he started his life in exile following a failed armed rebellion in 1959.
In 1939, a farmer's son named Lhamo Thondup, who was less than four years old - but already acknowledged as the new incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama by a search party - left his hometown in a remote village of northwestern Qinghai Province. He was headed for Lhasa in a large party that included his family.
The journey took three months. After a day-long ceremony in the title of the new Dalai Lama was conferred upon Lhamo Thondup, the little boy was taken to the Norbu Lingka - his first home in Lhasa.
Norbu Lingka means "treasure park" in Tibetan. The place witnessed many happy moments in the growth of the 14th Dalai Lama from a child to a young man.
So that, of his two regular residences in Lhasa, the Potala Palace and Norbu Lingka, the 14th Dalai Lama clearly preferred the latter in his autobiography published in 1990. "The Norbu Lingka was much the more pleasant of the two places," he wrote.
"It was surrounded by gardens and consisted of several smallish buildings which were light and airy inside. By contrast the Potala, which I could see towering magnificently above the city in the distance, was dark, cold and gloomy inside," he recalled in the book "Freedom In Exile."
But more important, it was Norbu Lingka that saw off "the last temporal liberty" of the 14th Dalai Lama that he was ever to know, because he "enjoyed a whole year free from any responsibility" there before he was formally enthroned at the Potala Palace in the winter of 1949.
After that, as his predecessors had, the 14th Dalai Lama moved to live in Norbu Lingka every March and moved back to the Potala Place at the end of every September.
Those allowed to enter the inner courtyard of Norbu Lingka were mainly high officials of the then-Tibetan government, members of noble families and senior lamas.
The administrators of Norbu Lingka now call people the owners of the "treasure park."
The palaces are no longer off-limits for ordinary people, while the gardens are a favorite picnic spot on weekends or important Tibetan festivals, particularly the Shoton or "Yogurt Festival." Families camp in the grounds, enjoy traditional Tibetan opera - and eat yogurt.
The park used to be on the old course of the Lhasa River. It evolved into a garden palace covering 46 hectares since the government of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) built the first building for the seventh Dalai Lama in the 1740s.
Preservation
A seven-year preservation project for Norbu Lingka costs more than 80 million yuan (US$11.7 million). It is expected to be completed this September.
One of the most popular places in Norbu Lingka is the Takten Migyur Potrang, or the New Summer Palace, for the 14th Dalai Lama, said Liu Rongquan, an administration official.
The two-story New Summer Palace was built by the Chinese central government for the 14th Dalai Lama in 1956.
"Like other palaces, everything here in the New Summer Palace is almost the same as it was 50 years ago," said Liu.
Jigme Geleg is a 28-year-old Tibetan who takes care of the New Summer Palace.
He speaks fluent Mandarin and English. "Norbu Lingka is the essence of our Tibetan culture," he said.
Jigme works from 9:30am to 6pm every day, sweeping the floor, lighting the yak butter lamps and changing the "sacred water" presented in front of the Dalai Lama's thrones.
A south-facing sutra hall on the second floor of the New Summer Palace is the key area for Jigme to watch. There are 301 of murals here telling Tibetan history - from its founding by the Holy Monkey to the 10th Panchen Lama and 14th Dalai Lama's interviews with late Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1954.
Pilgrims are often seen prostrating themselves or placing their heads on the foot of statues or the walls with murals, chanting the sacred words "Om Mani Padme Hum."
Fifty years ago, the upper ruling class in Tibet staged an armed rebellion to preserve serfdom and theocracy and Norbu Lingka was the location of the rebellion headquarters.
A few minutes before 10 o'clock on the night of March 10, 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama, disguised as a common soldier, left Norbu Lingka and started his life in exile.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
In 1939, a farmer's son named Lhamo Thondup, who was less than four years old - but already acknowledged as the new incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama by a search party - left his hometown in a remote village of northwestern Qinghai Province. He was headed for Lhasa in a large party that included his family.
The journey took three months. After a day-long ceremony in the title of the new Dalai Lama was conferred upon Lhamo Thondup, the little boy was taken to the Norbu Lingka - his first home in Lhasa.
Norbu Lingka means "treasure park" in Tibetan. The place witnessed many happy moments in the growth of the 14th Dalai Lama from a child to a young man.
So that, of his two regular residences in Lhasa, the Potala Palace and Norbu Lingka, the 14th Dalai Lama clearly preferred the latter in his autobiography published in 1990. "The Norbu Lingka was much the more pleasant of the two places," he wrote.
"It was surrounded by gardens and consisted of several smallish buildings which were light and airy inside. By contrast the Potala, which I could see towering magnificently above the city in the distance, was dark, cold and gloomy inside," he recalled in the book "Freedom In Exile."
But more important, it was Norbu Lingka that saw off "the last temporal liberty" of the 14th Dalai Lama that he was ever to know, because he "enjoyed a whole year free from any responsibility" there before he was formally enthroned at the Potala Palace in the winter of 1949.
After that, as his predecessors had, the 14th Dalai Lama moved to live in Norbu Lingka every March and moved back to the Potala Place at the end of every September.
Those allowed to enter the inner courtyard of Norbu Lingka were mainly high officials of the then-Tibetan government, members of noble families and senior lamas.
The administrators of Norbu Lingka now call people the owners of the "treasure park."
The palaces are no longer off-limits for ordinary people, while the gardens are a favorite picnic spot on weekends or important Tibetan festivals, particularly the Shoton or "Yogurt Festival." Families camp in the grounds, enjoy traditional Tibetan opera - and eat yogurt.
The park used to be on the old course of the Lhasa River. It evolved into a garden palace covering 46 hectares since the government of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) built the first building for the seventh Dalai Lama in the 1740s.
Preservation
A seven-year preservation project for Norbu Lingka costs more than 80 million yuan (US$11.7 million). It is expected to be completed this September.
One of the most popular places in Norbu Lingka is the Takten Migyur Potrang, or the New Summer Palace, for the 14th Dalai Lama, said Liu Rongquan, an administration official.
The two-story New Summer Palace was built by the Chinese central government for the 14th Dalai Lama in 1956.
"Like other palaces, everything here in the New Summer Palace is almost the same as it was 50 years ago," said Liu.
Jigme Geleg is a 28-year-old Tibetan who takes care of the New Summer Palace.
He speaks fluent Mandarin and English. "Norbu Lingka is the essence of our Tibetan culture," he said.
Jigme works from 9:30am to 6pm every day, sweeping the floor, lighting the yak butter lamps and changing the "sacred water" presented in front of the Dalai Lama's thrones.
A south-facing sutra hall on the second floor of the New Summer Palace is the key area for Jigme to watch. There are 301 of murals here telling Tibetan history - from its founding by the Holy Monkey to the 10th Panchen Lama and 14th Dalai Lama's interviews with late Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1954.
Pilgrims are often seen prostrating themselves or placing their heads on the foot of statues or the walls with murals, chanting the sacred words "Om Mani Padme Hum."
Fifty years ago, the upper ruling class in Tibet staged an armed rebellion to preserve serfdom and theocracy and Norbu Lingka was the location of the rebellion headquarters.
A few minutes before 10 o'clock on the night of March 10, 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama, disguised as a common soldier, left Norbu Lingka and started his life in exile.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
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