Taktsé Castle () was a castle located in the Chingwa () district of Chonggyä (') in central

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. According to legend, it was home to the kings of Tibet before

Songtsen Gampo Songtsen Gampo (Classical , pronounced ) (; (601–683 CE, reign 614-648) was the 33rd Tibetan king of the Yarlung dynasty and the founder of the Tibetan Empire. The first of three Dharma Kings of Tibet, he formally introduced Buddhism to Tib ...

(604–650) moved his capital to

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

. It later became the birthplace of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama (1617–1682), whose aristocratic family had made their home there. Its ruins remain.

History

The power that became the Tibetan state originated at the Taktsé Castle, which, according to legend, had been built by the 9th Emperor of Tibet, Chatri Tsenpo, and thus was, of old, the centre of power of the future Tibetan monarchy. According to the Old Tibetan Chronicle, in the early 7th century a group convinced Tagbu Nyazig (''Stag-bu snya-gzigs'') to rebel against Gudri Zingpoje (''Dgu-gri Zing-po-rje''), who was, in turn, a vassal of the

Zhangzhung Zhangzhung or Shangshung was an ancient kingdom in western and northwestern Tibet, existing from about 500 BCE to 625 CE, pre-dating Tibetan Buddhism. The Zhangzhung culture is associated with the Bon religion, which has influenced the philos ...

empire under the Lig Myi dynasty. The group prevailed against Zingpoje. At this point, Namri Songtsen (also known as Namri Löntsän) led his clan to, one by one, prevail over all his neighboring clans, using the easily defensible Taktse Castle effectively for military purposes. Before his assassination around 618, he gained control of all the area around what is now Lhasa, laying the stage for his son, Songsten Gampo, to craft the regional state that would later become known as the

Tibetan Empire The Tibetan Empire (,) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. It expanded further under the 38th king, Trisong De ...

. The government of Namri Songtsen, centred at the castle, also sent two embassies to the Chinese

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

in 608 and 609, marking the appearance of

on the international scene.Beckwith, Christopher I. ''The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia''. (1987), p. 17, Princeton University Press. .

References

Buildings and structures in Tibet Former castles Former buildings and structures in Tibet {{Tibet-stub