Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region

Lhasa, also known as luoxie and Rizhao City, is the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region of the people's Republic of China and an international tourist city with snow covered plateau and ethnic characteristics approved by the State Council. As of 2018, the city has three districts and five counties, with a total area of 29518 square kilometers and a built-up area of 82.82 square kilometers, with a permanent resident population of about 5435000 and an urban population of about 330000, with an urbanization rate of 60.7%.

Lhasa is located in Southwest China, the middle of Tibet Plateau, the north side of Himalayas and the valley plain in the middle reaches of Lhasa River, a tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo River. Lhasa River flows into the Yarlung Zangbo River in the southern suburbs. It is the political, economic, cultural, scientific and educational center of Tibet, as well as the holy land of Tibetan Buddhism. At an altitude of 3650 meters, it has sunny weather all year round, few rainfall, no severe cold in winter, no severe heat in summer, and pleasant climate. The annual sunshine time is more than 3000 hours, known as "sunshine city". Lhasa is rich in all kinds of resources, which has obvious resource advantages compared with other cities in the whole country and autonomous region.

Lhasa is one of the first batch of national historical and cultural cities. Lhasa is famous for its beautiful scenery, long history, unique customs and customs, and strong religious color. In the 7th century, Songzanganbu unified Tibet and moved its political center from Shannan to Lhasa. It has successively won the honorary titles of China's excellent tourist city, European tourists' favorite tourist city, national civilized city, China's most secure City, top 200 charming cities with Chinese characteristics, top 200 charming cities with world characteristics, and China's 100 cities in 2018.

In 2017, Lhasa reexamined and confirmed that it will continue to retain the honorary title of national civilized city. On April 2, 2018, the Ministry of science and technology and the national development and Reform Commission released a list of new batch of cities to support the construction of innovative cities. Seventeen cities in China were selected and Lhasa was one of them. In November 2018, it was selected into the top 100 of the overall well-off index of Chinese cities. In October 2020, it was rated as the national model city (county) of double support.

Around the first century AD, large and small clans appeared on the plateau. After years of peace and war, several tribal alliances have been formed. Among them, Yalong tribal alliance in Shannan Valley, Xiangxiong kingdom in Ali Region and Supi tribal alliance in the north of Yarlung Zangbo River are the most powerful. At this time, the ancient name of Lhasa River "Jiqu" has appeared. Lhasa is known as "jixuewotang", which means "fertile dam in the lower reaches of Jiqu River".

At the end of the sixth century and the seventh century, the Yalong tribe rose in the Shannan belt and expanded to the north of Lhasa. During the reign of Nang rilun Zan, the father of Songzan Ganbu, with the cooperation of Niang, Wei, Nen and other families, he invaded the fort of chibangsong and occupied Lhasa. Soon after that, matsuzangan took over the throne. Songzanganbu is a famous figure in the history of Tibet, known as "brave and resourceful", and also has a very important position in the history of Lhasa city. In order to consolidate and develop the newly established political power and avoid the interference of various nobles and chieftains in the past, he decided to move the base from Shannan to Lhasa, which was called "luoxie" in the Tang Dynasty. In about 633, Songzanganbu established a powerful Tubo Dynasty in Lhasa.

Before the capital moved, Lhasa was a swamp and desolation; after the capital moved, Songzanganbu built palaces, built rivers and built temples, which laid the foundation of Lhasa city. The Jokhang Temple was built in this period. According to legend, during the construction of the temple, goats filled the lake with soil. In Tibetan, sheep is called "re" and earth is called "Sa". After the completion of the Jokhang Temple, it is called "re Sa". Because the Jokhang Temple is the earliest building, people take "Reza" as the name of the city with the Jokhang Temple as the center. In Chinese historical books, "Reza" is generally translated as "Luopo" and "luoxie". With the prosperity of Buddhism, people regarded the city as a holy land, and the name "Lhasa" appeared at this time and is still used today.

Songzan Ganbu sent envoys to present gifts to Tang Dynasty. Songzan Ganbu sent his prime minister Ludong Zan to present gifts, offering five thousand taels of gold and hundreds of other treasures to ask for peace. Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty married Princess Wencheng to Songzanganbu. Lhasa is still full of historical sites related to Songzanganbu and Princess Wencheng. Many of their statues are worshipped in various temples. In 822, Liu Yuanding, an envoy of the Tang Dynasty, entered Tibet and joined with the Tibetan monks, Prime Minister Pao Shanbu and Prime Minister Shang qixin'er, in the eastern suburb of Lhasa. He also carved a stone tablet in the Jokhang Temple.

After Songzanganbu, Zanpu expanded Lhasa, making it more and more perfect. In the 8th century, chidezuzan promoted Buddhism and built many temples in Lhasa and other places. After his accession to the throne, chisongdezan further banned benzene to promote Buddhism, consolidated the status of Buddhism, and maintained and expanded the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. At the same time, many monasteries were built in pabanka, zayeba and other places, and the monasteries were assigned sub households. With the expansion of Tushan territory and the development of foreign exchanges, commercial activities become more frequent, forming some important commercial gathering points. As the capital, Lhasa naturally becomes one of the important commodity distribution centers and occupies an important position in the whole Tushan trade. When Chisong Dezan was in Lhasa, he also built jedegaqiong temple in remagang, the southern suburb of Lhasa, and built Wenjiang Island Palace on the East Bank of Jiqu River in the southwest of Lhasa.

After the death of chisongdezan, rebajanzanpu (about 815-838) continued to regard Lhasa as the center of promoting Buddhism. With his full support, he completed the expansion of the Buddhist halls around the Jokhang Temple, namely, the Kalu and mulu Buddhist halls in the East and West; the two Buddhist halls of Kawa and gabavo in the South; and the two halls of Zhikang and zhengkangtama in the West. Outside the Sangpu River Valley in the southwest of Lhasa, a large temple named bomaza sigpei has been built in Russia on the East Bank of Jiqu river.

At the end of the eighth century, Tubo society continued to be in turmoil. In Lhasa and its surrounding areas, there were major events of langdama's extermination of Buddhism and the uprising of slave civilians. After succeeding to the throne in 838, zanpulangdama adopted a completely different policy from his predecessor Zanpu, ordering the closure of all Buddhist temples in Tubo, forcing all monks to return to secular life, and burning all Buddhist classics. These measures aroused strong opposition from the powerful Buddhist organizations in Tubo society. In 842, langdama was assassinated by the monk bejiduoji in the Jokhang Temple. Since then, the powerful Tubo empire was on the verge of collapse.

In 857, the civilians of Jinluo in Tubo state started an uprising. At the same time, there was a serious conflict of interests between the two slave owners in weiru area, Lhasa as the center, and a long-term war took place. At the time of their conflagration, the rebels invaded the center of the Tubo empire. The civil uprising lasted for decades, and the Tubo society finally disintegrated in the uprising storm. After several hundred years, Tubo split into many ministries, the status of Lhasa declined sharply, and many historical buildings were destroyed by war.

In the later period of the separatist regime, there were many wars among the four groups of Luzhen, Pakistan, yogyakartan and Zhengjiang in Lhasa. In 1160, the four groups attacked and killed each other in Lhasa and Yalong Pengbo. The continuous wars not only brought great harm to the lives and property of the Tibetan people in Lhasa and the production of agriculture and animal husbandry, but also burned part of the Dazhao temple and Xiaozhao temple, causing serious losses. Not long after that, Tsai Ba He Ju rose in Lhasa and gradually replaced the position of other local forces in Lhasa.

In 1239, Cai bagagu sent envoys to Mongolia to carry out diplomacy. Kublai Khan, the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, granted Cai bagagu 3700 families. In the middle of the 13th century, the Yuan Dynasty divided the Wei and Zang into 100000 households, and caiba was classified as one of the three 10000 households. As an important force in Lhasa, caibawanhu has played an important role in the history of Lhasa's development and made many achievements. It has not only built Cai Ba temple and Gong Tang Temple, but also Xiang Zunzhu Zaba, the founder of CAI Ba GA Ju, his disciples and the household head of CAI Ba Wan, who has managed the Jokhang Temple for a long time and renovated it many times. He also organized forces to dredge waterways and strengthen river embankments, which once revived the city.

In 1409, Zong Kaba, the famous founder of the Yellow religion, founded the first praying Dafa Association in Lhasa. In the same year, he built Gandan temple, the first large temple of Gelug Sect, on Wanggu mountain to the east of Lhasa, and the Yellow Temple developed. In 1416, jiangyangquji zaxibeidan, a disciple of zongkaba, built Drepung temple about 10 kilometers away in the western suburb of Lhasa with the support of the great nobleman Liuwu nankasanbu. In 1419, another disciple of zongkaba, jiangqingquji, built sera temple in the northern suburb of Lhasa.

Based on these three temples, the Gelug faction continued to expand its influence. At the beginning of the 16th century, Jizun xilaohage, a disciple of zongkaba, studied the secret school and established the secret school in Lhasa. Later, gonggadunzhu built another upper and lower esoteric school in the upper part of the esoteric school, forming the famous upper and lower esoteric schools. In the later period, xirao Seng Ge continued to build some similar temples in Lhasa suburbs, such as salaqundan and Caigong hall on sera temple mountain, Deqin sangangkal in Dazi County, jimieci and Pengbo Zhujie in Mozhugongka county. Since then, Buddhism in Lhasa has flourished.

The Ming Dynasty also set up some tea horse exchanges on the border of Tibet. The paper, silk and tea from the mainland entered Tibet through the tea horse exchange, and the cattle, sheep and horses from Tibet were exchanged to the mainland. The economic exchanges between the mainland and the border areas of Tibet were very close.

In 1644 ad, the Qing Dynasty took over the Central Plains, unified the whole country, and gradually established its rule over Tibet. From the 17th century to the 18th century, during the period of the Qing Dynasty and the Suote khanate, Tibet was relatively stable in politics, relatively peaceful in society and relatively rapid in urban development. During this period, there were two major disturbances in Lhasa, one was the invasion of Xinjiang Junggar Khanate in 1717, and the other was Tibet around 1727

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