Tibet Tours

Tibet Tours

Yumbu Lhakhang Palace

It is located on the Tashi Tsere Hill, about 5 km to the southeast of Nedong County of Lhoka. Yumbu means female deer, because the Tashi Tsere Hill appears like a female deer, and Lhakang means holy palace. The Yumbu Lhakang is the first palace in Tibet and was built by Nyechi Tsanpu, the first Tibetan King in 2 century B.C. according to the legend. Enshrined inside the Palace are statues of the Three Periods of Buddhas, statues of successive kings such as Nyechi Tsanpu, Lha Thothori Nyantsen, Rebajian, Songtsen Gampo and Trisong Detsan. About 400m to the northeast of the Tashi Tsere Hill, there is a famous spring named the Gar Spring which flows in a ceaseless stream for the whole year.

As the ancient palace of the Tibetan kings prominenting on a rocky hill, it is a narrow rectangular building with a slender white tower topped by a gilded rgya-phibs canopy. According to Tibetan legend, during the reign of the 28th king Lha Thothori Nyantsen in the 5th century, the first Buddhist Sutra to enter Tibet fell from the sky onto the roof of Yumbu Lhakhang together with a small golden stupa and a jewel.By tradition it was founded by the mythical king Nya-khri Btsan-po and it is associated, rather more possibly, with king Tho-tho-ri who may be placed tentatively in the middle of the fifth century. The story gives sanctity to the building which, which is approached by a narrow path up a steep hill and entered through a low door beyond which a steep ladder leads to the first floor.

The Yumbu Lhakhang palace may have been the oldest structure in Tibet before being mostly destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In the 1960s, the Yumbu Lhakhang was rebuilt and beautifully redecorated. The Yumbu Lkakhang is revered by pilgrims as the location of the first appearance of Buddhism in Tibet.