The Zhol outer pillar, or Doring Chima, is a stone pillar which stands outside the historical residential and administrative

Zhol village Zhol Village, or Shol Village (; often transcribed as Zhöl or Shöl Village), is a village at the base of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. It contained the residences and administrative buildings of Ganden Phodrang's government officials and oth ...

below the

Potala Palace The Potala Palace is a ''dzong'' fortress in Lhasa, Tibet. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, has been a museum since then, and a World Heritage Site since 1994. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythic ...

, in

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhas ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

. It was erected to commemorate a 783 border treaty between the

Tibetan Empire The Tibetan Empire (, ; ) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of imperial expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. The empire further expanded under the 3 ...

and the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

. The pillar is inscribed with an old example of Tibetan writing.

Erection

The pillar was erected during the reign of King

Trisong Detsen Tri Songdetsen () was the son of Me Agtsom, the 38th emperor of Tibet. He ruled from AD 755 until 797 or 804. Tri Songdetsen was the second of the Three Dharma Kings of Tibet, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and th ...

(755 until 797, or 804), the 38th king of the Yarlung dynasty. It was commissioned by the powerful minister Nganlam Takdra Lukhong.

The inscription

The creation of the Tibetan script occurred during the reign of Songsten Gampo, the 33rd king of the Yarlung dynasty, through the work of

Thonmi Sambhota Thonmi Sambhota (Thönmi Sambhoṭa, aka Tonmi Sambhodha;, Tib. , Wyl. thon mi sam+b+ho Ta; b. seventh cent.) is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the Tibetan script and author of the ''Sum cu pa'' and ''Rtags kyi 'jug pa'' in the 7th cen ...

and others. Sambhota was sent to India early in Songsten Gampo's reign, and devised an alphabet suitable for the Tibetan language by adapting elements of Indian scripts and other scripts. The inscription starts off by announcing that Nganlam Takdra Lukhong had been appointed Great Inner Minister and Great Yo-gal 'chos-pa (a title difficult to translate). It goes on to say that Klu-khong brought to Trisong Detsen the facts of the murder of his father, Me Agtsom (704-754) by two of his Great Ministers, 'Bal Ldong-tsab and LangMyes-zigs, and that they intended to harm him also. They were then condemned and Klu-kong was appointed Inner Minister of the Royal Council. It then gives an account of his services to the king including campaigns against

Tang Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...

China which culminated in the brief capture of the Chinese capital

Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin S ...

(modern

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...

) in 763 CESnellgrove and Richardson (1995), p. 91. during which the Tibetans temporarily installed as Emperor a relative of Princess Jincheng Gongzhu (Kim-sheng Kong co), the Chinese wife of Trisong Detsen's father, Me Agtsom.Beckwith (1987), p. 148. It is a testament to the generally tolerant attitude of Tibetan culture that this proud memorial by a subject was allowed to stand after the re-establishment of Buddhism under Trisong Detsen and has survived until modern times.

Other information about the pillar

Traditionally among the celebrations for Tibetan New Year, or

Losar Losar (; "new year"William D. Crump, "Losar" in ''Encyclopedia of New Year's Holidays Worldwide'' (McFarland & Co.: 2008), pp. 237-38.) also known as Tibetan New Year, is a festival in Tibetan Buddhism. The holiday is celebrated on various d ...

, a team of sportsmen, usually from

Shigatse Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê (; Nepali: ''सिगात्से''), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histor ...

, would perform daredevil feats such as sliding down a rope from the top of the highest roof of the Potala, to the Zhol Pillar at the foot of the hill. However, the 13th Dalai Lama banned this performance because it was dangerous and sometimes even fatal. As of 1993 the pillar was fenced off so it could not be approached closely (see accompanying photo).

Gallery

File:Potala and Sho Doring.jpg, 1936-1937 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 135-S-12-48-12, Tibetexpedition, Karawane vor Potala.jpg, 1938 File:Bundesarchiv Bild 135-S-15-04-37, Tibetexpedition, Lhasa, Potala.jpg, 1938 File:Lhasa Zhol Rdo-rings 1993.JPG, 1993 File:Lhasa vom Potala II.jpg, 2004

Footnotes

References

* ''Ancient Tibet: Research Materials from the Yeshe De Project''. (1986). Dharma Publishing. Berkeley, California. . *

Beckwith, Christopher I. Christopher I. Beckwith (born October 23, 1945) is an American philologist and distinguished professor in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He has a B.A. in Chinese from Ohio State Univer ...

(1987). ''The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia''. Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey. . * Larsen and Sinding-Larsen (2001). ''The Lhasa Atlas: Traditional Tibetan Architecture and Landscape'', Knud Larsen and Amund Sinding-Larsen. Shambhala Books, Boston. . * Richardson, Hugh E. (1984) ''Tibet & Its History''. 1st edition 1962. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Shambhala Publications. Boston . * Richardson, Hugh E. (1985). ''A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions''. Royal Asiatic Society. . * Snellgrove, David & Hugh Richardson. (1995). ''A Cultural History of Tibet''. 1st edition 1968. 1995 edition with new material. Shambhala. Boston & London. .

External links

"The Battle of the Barkhor"
Gordon Laird - "Barkhor Heritage 05".

{{coord missing, Tibet History of Tibet Tang dynasty Buildings and structures in Lhasa Treaties of Tibet History of Lhasa