Gyantse Dzong, Tibet 2019
The hilltop offers an unrivalled view of Gyantse town, and there is a small museum documenting the excesses of the British Younhusband expedition, which severely damaged the fortress in 1904. Restoration work at the fortress has taken place in recent years, but visitors have still occasinally found it difficult to gain acces.
The original fortress of Gyel-khar-tse (རྒྱལ་ཁར་ རྩེ་ rgyal khar rtse) is attributed to Pelkhor-tsen, son of the anti-Buddhist king Langdarma, who vainly sought to perpetuate the Yarlung Dynasty from West Tibet following the assassination of his father.
The walls of the present structure were reputedly built in 1268, following the rise to power of the Sakyapas, and in 1365 a palatial castle was founded on the hilltop by the local prince, Phakpa Pelzangpo (1318-1370), who had acquired influence at the court in Sakya through his reputation as a brave general in the southern military campaigns conducted by his Sakyapa overlords, and at Zhalu, where in 1350 he entered into a marriage alliance with the lords of Zhalu. As dowry he was granted the fiefdom of Changra, west of Gyantse, and he invited the great Buddhist master Buton Rinchendrub of Zhalu to reside in a temple which he had constructed there. In 1365, in addition to the Gyantse Castle, he also founded the Tsechen Chode (Shambu Tsegu) castle and temple complex at the entrance to the Gyantse valley and adopted it as his principal seat. The incarnation of Buton, Drubchen Kunga Lodro, also resided there.
Gyantse Dzong, Tibet 2019
The hilltop offers an unrivalled view of Gyantse town, and there is a small museum documenting the excesses of the British Younhusband expedition, which severely damaged the fortress in 1904. Restoration work at the fortress has taken place in recent years, but visitors have still occasinally found it difficult to gain acces.
The original fortress of Gyel-khar-tse (རྒྱལ་ཁར་ རྩེ་ rgyal khar rtse) is attributed to Pelkhor-tsen, son of the anti-Buddhist king Langdarma, who vainly sought to perpetuate the Yarlung Dynasty from West Tibet following the assassination of his father.
The walls of the present structure were reputedly built in 1268, following the rise to power of the Sakyapas, and in 1365 a palatial castle was founded on the hilltop by the local prince, Phakpa Pelzangpo (1318-1370), who had acquired influence at the court in Sakya through his reputation as a brave general in the southern military campaigns conducted by his Sakyapa overlords, and at Zhalu, where in 1350 he entered into a marriage alliance with the lords of Zhalu. As dowry he was granted the fiefdom of Changra, west of Gyantse, and he invited the great Buddhist master Buton Rinchendrub of Zhalu to reside in a temple which he had constructed there. In 1365, in addition to the Gyantse Castle, he also founded the Tsechen Chode (Shambu Tsegu) castle and temple complex at the entrance to the Gyantse valley and adopted it as his principal seat. The incarnation of Buton, Drubchen Kunga Lodro, also resided there.