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Gansu

Chinese ancient architecture and grottoes in Gansu: 2 entries, including Bingling Grottoes, Labrang Monastery, and more.

001 Grottoes Bingling Grottoes The Bingling Temple Grottoes are carved into the cliff face on the north bank of the Yellow River in Yongjing County, Linxia, Gansu. The Tibetan word “Bingling” means “where one hundred thousand Maitreya Buddhas dwell.” The Shuijing Zhu records many stone chambers in the cliffs here, called “Tangshu Caves” (ghost caves) by the Qiang people. In Cave 169 an ink inscription reading “first year of Jianhong” (Western Qin, 420 CE) was discovered, one of the earliest known dated inscriptions in Chinese grottoes. After the Liujiaxia Reservoir filled in 1968, the site can only be reached by boat. Sixteen Kingdoms-Western Qin · Gansu · Yongjing County, Linxia City, Gansu
002 Architecture Labrang Monastery Labrang Monastery, in Xiahe County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu, was founded in the forty-eighth year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing (1709). One of the six great monasteries of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and the seat of the Jamyang Zhepa line, it is also known simply as Tashikhyil Monastery, transcribed in Qing Chinese texts variously as 拉布楞, 拉布浪, and 拉卜愣. Drawing on Qing sources such as the Gazetteer of Xunhua Subprefecture, the Diary of a Journey in Attendance in the Xinmao Year, the Memorials on the Pacification of the Tibetans, and the Veritable Records of Qing, this article traces the monastery's history from Chaghan Danjin's invitation to the First Jamyang Zhepa to found it, through the nineteen-year lawsuit with Heicuo Monastery, the dispute with Rongwo Monastery, and the Bangzhou case, and presents historical photographs of Labrang Monastery taken by Harrison Forman between 1932 and 1937. Qing dynasty · Gansu · Xiahe County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu

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