Xialu Temple

Xialu Temple

Xialu temple is located in the southeast of Shigatse City, in a mountain depression of jiacuoxiong Township, 26 kilometers away from the center of Shigatse City. According to legend, this place used to be one of the top ten business cities in Tubo.

According to the records of the history of the temple, Xialu temple was built in 1087, which is equivalent to the second year of Yuanyou of the Song Dynasty. The founder of jiansi was named jiezun jiaraogonnie. In 1320, which was equivalent to the seventh year of Yanyou reign of emperor Renzong of the Yuan Dynasty, Xialu Temple invited master buton to preside over the affairs of the temple. Since then, Xialu sect was established in Tibetan Buddhism. In 1333, when Emperor Huizong of Yuan Dynasty, master buton rebuilt the temple. In 2012, there were more than 60 monks in the temple.

Xialu temple is one of the national key cultural relics protection units. It is an ancient temple built in the early period of the post Buddhist period in Tibet. It is the main temple of the Xialu sect (Budun sect) of Lamaism.

Temple History

Xialu temple is one of the largest Buddhist temples in Tibet and the ancestral temple of Xialu sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

In 998 (the first year of Xianping in the Northern Song Dynasty), Tibetan Buddhism entered a post boom period. At that time, there were ten Buddhists, such as Rumei chuchen xirao, who were guarding Tibet (namely: five former Tibetans, such as Rumei chuchen xirao, Zhang yixiyundan, Rexi chuchen junle, BA chuchen Luozhe, songba yixiluozhe; three latter Tibetans, such as luodun dojiewangxiu, cunzun xirao sengge, podongba Dega; two ariojie Brothers) After banning Buddhism in langdama, I heard that the great Lama Qin Gongba raosei (about 891-975), who fled from Tibet to Qinghai, was an eminent monk, so I went to worship him as my teacher.

In 1087 (the second year of Yuanyou in the Northern Song Dynasty), one of the ten, Xuecheng huizang, named luodun duojiewangxiu, built a temple named "Jiankong" in Jiacuo, Southeast of Shigatse, and took in an apprentice named "Jizun xihuanqiongnai". Jizun xiliaoqiongnai went to India to study and became a knowledgeable Buddhist. In order to develop Buddhism, Jizun xiraoqiongnai wanted to build a temple, so he asked the master luodun dojwangqiu to locate his arrow. The arrow fell in the field of young crops, which means "Xialu" in Tibetan, so it was named "Xialu Temple". Burton renqinzhu (1290-1364) is the founder of the Xialu sect (also known as the "Burton sect"). He is a knowledgeable scholar of the chuopu sect in the Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism. His father Sheng Chuang, Ji Xiangxian, and his mother Fu Yi are both the teachers of Tantrism.

After the reconstruction of Xialu temple in 1320 (the seventh year of Yanyou reign of the Yuan Dynasty), during his tenure as abbot, Burton renqinzhu spread four secrets (Shimi, xingmi, yoga, supreme yoga), revised the Tripitaka and compiled a catalogue of the Tripitaka. His works included 28 letters, totaling more than 100. In 1322, he wrote the history of Burton Buddhism One part of this historical work is to record the historical facts of the spread of Buddhism in India and Nepal; the other part is to record the spread and development of Buddhism in Tibet and Tibetan areas, including the history of the early "post flourishing period" of Tibetan Buddhism; the last part is the general catalogue of the Tibetan scriptures of ganzhur and danzhur, which is the study of Tibetan Buddhism history It's one of the main reference books of. When Xialu temple was first built, there were only a few monks. After three times of repair and expansion, there were more and more monks. When master Burton was the head of the temple, it was the heyday, with more than 3000 monks.

In 1329, Shigatse earthquake destroyed Xialu temple. At that time, jizai was in Beijing. When emperor yuan learned that Xialu temple had been destroyed by the earthquake, he ordered jizai to return to Tibet to repair it and gave him a lot of money to repair it. So jizai invited a large number of Han craftsmen from the mainland, and transported glass, bricks and other materials. In 1333, the construction of this temple with a special style of Han Tibetan mixed structure was started by Han Tibetan craftsmen. In 1333, with the great financial support of the Yuan Dynasty emperor, buton built a large-scale construction project to expand and repair the original temple. The Yuan Dynasty Emperor gave a lot of financial support and sent Han craftsmen. The temple of this scale was rebuilt. Therefore, the building has a strong Yuan Dynasty style, and the walls and courtyard of the temple are all traditional Tibetan style, which belongs to the typical Chinese Tibetan architecture.

In 1981 and 1989, the government appropriated a large sum of money for maintenance, restoring its original style and features. At present, there are more than 60 monks.

Architectural pattern

Xialu temple is famous for the combination of Tibetan and Han architectural style in Tibet. It is a combination of Tibetan style palace buildings with Han style palace pavilions, glazed brick roofs, cornices, beast kisses, and wooden brackets. The two different architectural styles are well integrated, which fully shows the close cooperation between Tibetan and Han craftsmen.

The main building of Xialu temple is a three story high tsoqin hall, including the Sutra hall, the passage corridor and more than ten temples. The main hall faces east from the West and faces a huge square. The East, South, North and three sides of the square are surrounded by two-story monk houses and warehouses.

There are statues of Sakyamuni and his eight disciples in the temple in the chanting hall, and statues of limitless light Buddha and compassionate Avalokitesvara in the left and right side halls. On both sides of the hall, the ancient woodcut versions of ganzhur and danzhur, the Tripitaka compiled by master Burton, are conspicuously stored, which is the treasure of Xialu temple. In addition to the statues of Sakyamuni and his sixteen Arhats, zongkaba and his disciples, the most prominent temple on the second floor is the statue of master buton and his bronze pagoda. The statues of zongkaba and his disciples were added after the Gelug Sect took over the dominant position.

The wall and layout are Tibetan architecture, with the roof of Han style glazed Xieshan. It is composed of main building units such as golden hall, cloister, Dharma protection temple, Prajna mother hall, East, West, north, South Wuliang palace and so on. There are 49 rooms in the main hall, covering an area of 1500 square meters. The first floor hall is dedicated to the statue of Sakyamuni and eight followers of Buddha, the West Hall is dedicated to ganzhur and danzhur Sutra, the second floor is dedicated to the statue of Sakyamuni Buddha and master buton, the left and right of which are the mandala hall, and the front hall is dedicated to the statue of Tzu Zun Buddha and the statue of sixteen Arhats.

audience hall

The main hall of Xialu temple is divided into front and back main hall and left and right auxiliary hall. The bottom floor of the hall is integrated, and the four halls above the second floor are separated. All of them are wooden beams and glazed tile roofs. This is an ancient building complex with special style, which combines Tibetan traditional form with interior structural modeling.

Although the overall area of the main hall is not very large, the exquisite statues, rich murals and exquisite plastic arts in the hall are extremely rare. In the left turn corridor behind the Sutra Hall of the main hall, the upper part of the wall is painted with murals. The inner wall of the corridor is painted with Thousand Buddhas, while the outer wall is mostly painted with Buddhist stories, listening to sutras and so on. There are many images of life activities in the painting. The content of the mural is very rich, the form is lively, and the brushwork is exquisite and powerful. In the style of murals, many places have absorbed the artistic style of Nepal or India, but there are also many pictures similar to the song and Yuan Dynasty Murals in Dunhuang Grottoes, and the clothing, ornaments, furniture and architecture of the characters in the paintings also have the inland style in many places. Murals of this style are rare in general temples in Tibet.

Main hall

At the top of the main hall of Xialu temple, it is three stories high, about 8 meters long and 5 meters wide. The glazed tiles, porcelain carvings, and square tiles on the coverings make one see at a glance that they are made in the mainland. If we compare the products made by firing and casting the imitation tiles in piandian, one can see the traces of imitation at a glance. In the main hall, the old murals are renovated. The mural is rich in content, exquisite in craftsmanship, vivid in story and strong in rendering, which is quite of the mural style of Yuan Dynasty. To take just one example, the Bodhisattva portrait of Xialu temple is different from other temples. In terms of artistic style, it absorbed more of the inland style and appeared simple and vivid, mixed with Nepalese and Indian styles and appeared lively and graceful; more of it was the Tibetan style, which appeared elegant and solemn.

Xialu Hall

The main building of Xialu temple is Xialu hall, also known as "Xialu Lacan". Its architecture is very special, the top of the temple is high ridge, the bucket arch, the glazed tile trough, and the cornice is tilted, such as wings. Under the eaves are laminated wood carving, no iron connection, modeling structure is modeled on the style of the inland temple. The striking red walls, built of stone and closely connected halls also reflect the characteristics of building temples in Tibet. The architecture of the temple is the crystallization of Tibetan and Han architectural art combination. In addition, there are four zharons in the temple, namely, kawazacang, rebajiezacang and Anning zacang. Only the main hall is preserved, and the rest of ZHACANG has been occupied by village dwellings.

Xialu hall is a two-story hall with a west facing east. The main hall on the bottom floor is the assembly hall, covering an area of about 1500 square meters. There are statues of Sakyamuni and eight disciples. Each of the two has a sutra hall, which is dedicated to the scriptures of ganzhur and danzhur. The second floor of the main hall is completely the layout of the Han style courtyard, with the main hall, the auxiliary hall and the front hall. The axis is clear and symmetrical. The four halls are all equipped with glass roof, cornice and arched eaves. The style is simple and varied. There are flying Apsaras, ladies, lions and tigers and flowers, which are lifelike. There are statues of Sakyamuni and master buton in the main hall, as well as various sizes of copper kadangta.

Four Temple Treasures

There are a large number of historical relics such as murals, Buddha statues, scriptures, thangkas and magic weapons in Xialu temple

The first treasure is "La Zi Jing ban": during the construction of the temple, 108 small wooden boards were used to form a square, and each board was engraved with a Scripture. It consists of 108 character boards

Chinese PinYin : Xia Lu Si