Tashilhunpo
Entrance to Tashilhunpo Monastery
Tibetan name
Tibetan	བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་
Wylie transliteration	bkra shis lhun po
pronunciation in IPA	[ʈáɕil̥ympo]
official transcription (PRC)	Zhaxilhünbo
THDL	Trashilhünpo
other transcriptions	Tashilhunpo, Tashilhümpo
Chinese name
traditional	扎什倫布寺
simplified	扎什伦布寺
Pinyin	Zhāshílúnbù Sì
Tashilhunpo Monastery Location within Tibet
Coordinates:	29°16′03″N 88°52′52″E / 29.2675°N 88.88111°E / 29.2675; 88.88111
Monastery information
Location	Shigatse, Tibet, China
Founded by	Gendun Drup, 1st Dalai Lama
Founded	1447
Type	Tibetan Buddhist
Sect	Gelug
Lineage	Panchen Lama

Tashilhunpo Monastery (Tibetan: བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་), founded in 1447 by Gendun Drup, the First Dalai Lama,^[1] is a historic and culturally important monastery next to Shigatse, the second-largest city in Tibet.

It was sacked when the Gurkhas invaded Tibet and captured Shigatse in 1791 before a combined Tibetan and Chinese army drove them back as far as the outskirts of Kathmandu,^[2] when they were forced to agree to keep the peace in future, pay tribute every five years, and return what they had looted from Tashilhunpo.^[3]

The monastery is the traditional seat of successive Panchen Lamas, the second highest ranking tulku lineage in the Gelukpa tradition. The "Tashi" or Panchen Lama had temporal power over three small districts, though not over the town of Shigatse itself, which was administered by a dzongpön (prefect) appointed from Lhasa.^[4]

Located on a hill in the center of the city, the full name in Tibetan of the monastery means: "all fortune and happiness gathered here" or "heap of glory".

"If the magnificence of the place was to be increased by any external cause, none could more superbly have adorned its numerous gilded canopies and turrets than the sun rising in full splendour directly opposite. It presented a view wonderfully beautiful and brilliant; the effect was little short of magic, and it made an impression which no time will ever efface from my mind." Captain Samuel Turner, 'Embassy to the Court of the Teshu Lama,' p. 230. In:^[5]

Pilgrims circumambulate the monastery on the Lingkor (sacred path) outside the walls.

Fortunately, although two-thirds of the buildings were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, they were mainly the residences for the 4,000 monks^[6][7] and the monastery itself was not as extensively damaged as most other monasteries in Tibet, for it was the seat of the Panchen Lama who remained in Chinese-controlled territory.

However, during 1966 Red Guards led a crowd to break statues, burn scriptures and open the stupas containing the relics of the 5th to 9th Panchen Lamas, and throw them in the river. Some remains, though, were saved by locals and the 10th Panchen Lama in 1985 began the construction of a new stupa to house them and honour his predecessors. It was finally consecrated on 22 January 1989, just six days before he died, aged fifty-one, at Tashilhunpo. "It was as if he was saying now he could rest."^[8]

History[link]

The Thanka Wall overlooking the monastery

The monastery was founded in 1447 CE by Gedun Drub, the nephew and disciple of the famous Buddhist philosopher Je Tsongkhapa and later named the First Dalai Lama. The construction was financed by donations from local nobles.

Two novice monks. Tashilhunpo, 1993

Later Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten, the Fourth Panchen Lama and the first Panchen Lama to be recognized as such by the rulers of Mongolia, made major expansions to the monastery. Since then all Panchen Lamas have resided at Tashilhunpo, and have managed to expand it gradually.

In 1791 the monastery was attacked and looted by an army of Nepalese Gurkha warriors but were driven out by the Chinese who at the same time strengthened their control, over the temple and Tibet.

Novice monk with teapot.

Choekyi Gyalpo, the 11th Panchen Lama according to the government of the People's Republic of China, has been enthroned there, while Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama recognised by the Dalai Lama, has been held under "protective custody" by the Chinese authorities since 1995.

Tashilhunpo in its prime had over 4,000 monks and had four Tantric colleges each with its own Abbot. After the death of a Panchen Lama, these four abbots led the search for his infant incarnation and one of them always acted as a prime minister of Tsang under the control of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa.

In 1960, however, the monastery was disbanded by the Chinese army whilst the Panchen Lama was absent, although less damage was inflicted on the monastery than on most others around Tibet.

During the 1960s many senior lamas and monastics left Tibet and helped re-establish new monasteries in India, Nepal and Bhutan. The late Panchen Lama did not leave Tibet and consequently many of the senior lamas from Tashilhunpo Monastery remained inside Tibet. Therefore, while other monasteries-in-exile have expanded and developed under the guidance of senior lamas, Tashilhunpo has remained at a disadvantage, although in 1972 a new campus of Tashilhunpo Monastery was built by Tibetan exiles at a settlement in Bylakuppe, Karnātakā in southern India.

Since the early 1980s parts of the Tashilhunpo monastery have been open to the public and it is an important tourist attraction in Tibet today.

Halls of the Tashilhunpo Monastery[link]

Jamba Chyenmu 'The Maitreya Temple'[link]

Monks at Tashilunpo

The Maitreya Temple known as (Jambu Chyenmu)) on the west side is the tallest building of the monastery. It was erected in 1914 by the Ninth Panchen Lama to house a gigantic statue of the Maitreya Buddha and is 26.2 metres (86 feet) in height. The statue sits on a splendid lotus throne in the 'European' posture with its hands in the symbolic teaching pose. A single finger of the giant figure is almost 4 feet in length. The statue contains 279 kg (614 lbs) of gold and 150,000 kg (330,000 lb) of copper and brass moulded on a solid wooden frame by Tibetan and Nepalese craftsmen. Small versions of the Maitreya are positioned in all four corners of the chamber and the murals on either side of the door show a more active, antic style than any to be seen in Lhasa.

Gudong: The Panchen Lama's Palace[link]

On the east side of the monastery is the old living quarters of the Panchen Lama, the Panchen Lama's Palace known as Gudong. Within, a narrow courtyard gives access to the temple containing the Fourth Panchen Lama's tomb. The temple vestibule has very large inscriptions at either end praising his holiness. Inside, the silver and gold stupa tomb rivals any in the Potala Palace in Lhasa for the splendour of its craftsmenship and jewels. Measuring 11 metres (36 ft) in height it contains 85 kg (187 lb) of gold and countless semi-precious stones. On the left is three statues representing Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, whom the Panchen Lams are thought to embody. An upper level has a number of long chapels embroidered in silk thangka's that relate the lives and events surrounded the Panchen Lamas. Most were made in Hangzou as indeed many throughout Tibet were during the 1920s. The old living quarters of the Panchen Lama are no longer open to the public but the rooms are more modest and human that any of the rooms at the Potala.^{[citation needed]}

Main Chanting Hall[link]

The main chanting hall contains the throne of the Panchen Lama and two connected chapels. The left-one is devoted to an elaborately ensconced Sakyamuni with eight Bodhisattva robed in bocade. The right hand one is dedicated to Tara the goddess who sanctifies the mountain above and whose image is depicted throughout the temple. A White Tara goddess occupies the centre of the altar with a Jade Green Tara on either side.

Sutra Hall[link]

Tashilhunpo Monastery. The two tiered gilded bronze structure of the roof chapels can be seen at the top of the picture

Sutra Hall is the repository chamber of the monastery containing some 10,000 hand-carved wooden blocks used for printing the Buddhist scriptures. These are all Tibetan translations of the original Sanskrit text. Visitors to the temple can buy colured prayer flags and Tibetan lunar calendars as souvenirs which are printed in the chamber.

Gyeni Chanting Hall[link]

The Gyeni Chanting Hall is a chanting chamber of the Tashilhunpo Monastery on the south-east side where Tibetan Buddhism is practised. It has a debating garden in its courtyard with many fine trees. The roof of the chanting hall has a chapel on the north side where two very tall guardians are formed from its structural columns by the use of masks and ancient armour. Outside it are some extraordinary colourful Buddha murals and animal murals which have emerged from folklore and animism. It is situated near the smaller chanting hall of the Ngagang college on the west side.

Ngang College[link]

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Ngang College is a smaller chanting chamber of the monastery on the west side of the main path upstairs of the Deyangshar courtyard. A Ngang a morning chanting ceremony with religious musical instruments usually takes place between the few remaining monks of the temple. Pilgrims may circumambulate the hall but tourists, particularly photographers are asked to be extremely sensitive to the religious atmosphere.

Chuajing Duogang: The Great Courtyard[link]

The great flagstoned courtyard of Tashilhunpo, known as (Chuajing Duogang) has walls which are covered by over 1000 repeated Sakyamuni, with their hands gesturing the five symbolic poses (mudras)

The Great Gallery[link]

The gallery of the monastery surrounds the Deyangshar courtyard and leads to the chapels on the east side housing many hundreds of tiny Buddha statues.

The Roof Chapels[link]

The roof of Tashilhunpo has several bronze-gated chapels located on two-tiered levels. On the north side, above the chapels of the chanting hall is the funerary stupa of the First Dalai Lama, the only one not entombed in Lhasa. On the east side is a small 'chamber of horrors' chapel. Painted demons, considered now to be defenders of Buddhism betray their origins as the terrifying gods of the old animist Bön faith who only later were absorbed by Buddhism. On the south side is a charming Tara chapel with blue and gold murals on the walls depicting Tibetan history.

Tashilhunpo Monastery, Shigatse, 1993

Branch Monasteries[link]

One of its branch monasteries was the famous Drongtse Monastery, 14 km north of Tsechen.^[9]

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Chapman, Spencer F. (1940). Lhasa: The Holy City. Readers Union Ltd., London.
• Das, Sarat Chandra. Lhasa and Central Tibet. (1802). Reprint: Mehra Offset Press, Delhi (1988).
• Dorje, Gyurme. (1999) Tibet handbook: with Bhutan, 2nd Edition. Footprint Travel Guides. ISBN 1-900949-33-4, ISBN 978-1-900949-33-0.
• Dowman, Keith. 1988. The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and New York. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0
• Das, Sarat Chandra. Lhasa and Central Tibet. (1902). Edited by W. W. Rockhill. Reprint: Mehra Offset Press, Delhi (1988), pp. 40, 43 ff., 69, 114, 117, 149, 237; illustration opposite p. 50.
• Richardson, Hugh E. Tibet & its History. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. (1984). Shambhala Publications, Boston Mass. ISBN 0-87773-376-7.
• Sun, Shuyun (2008). A Year in Tibet. HarperCollins Publishers, London. ISBN 978-0-00-728879-3.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tashilhunpo

• Website of the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Bylakuppe
• Life on the Tibetan Plateau Tashilhunpo Monastery
• Grand Monastery of Tashi-Lhunpo 1902, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas, Austin

Coordinates: 29°16′03″N 88°52′52″E / 29.2675°N 88.88111°E / 29.2675; 88.88111

John Crowley
John Crowley at South Street Seaport, 2007.
Born	(1942-12-01) 1 December 1942 (age 69) Presque Isle, Maine
Occupation	Novelist, Documentary screenwriter, University lecturer
Language	English
Nationality	American
Period	1975—
Genres	Science fiction, Fantasy
Notable work(s)	Little, Big Ægypt series, Four Freedoms
Notable award(s)	World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement
Influences Thomas Pynchon, David Derek Stacton, Vladmir Nabokov, Samuel Johnson, Lewis Carroll
Influenced Susanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman, Mark Helprin,

John Crowley (born December 1, 1942) is an American author of fantasy, science fiction and mainstream fiction. He studied at Indiana University and has a second career as a documentary film writer. He is best known as the author of Little, Big (1981), which received the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and has been called "a neglected masterpiece" by Harold Bloom.^[1]

Biography[link]

John Crowley was born in Presque Isle, Maine, in 1942; his father was then an officer in the US Army Air Corps. He grew up in Vermont, northeastern Kentucky and (for the longest stretch) Indiana, where he went to high school and college. He moved to New York City after college to make movies, and did find work in documentary films, an occupation he still pursues. He published his first novel (The Deep) in 1975, and his 17th volume of fiction (Four Freedoms) in 2009. Since 1993 he has taught creative writing at Yale University.^[2] In 1992 he received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

His first published novels were science fiction: The Deep (1975) and Beasts (1976). Engine Summer (1979) was nominated for the 1980 National Book Award in one-year category Science Fiction;^[3] it appears in David Pringle’s Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. In 1981 came Little, Big, covered in Pringle's sequel, Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels.

In 1987 Crowley embarked on an ambitious four-volume novel, Ægypt, comprising The Solitudes (originally published as Ægypt), Love & Sleep, Dæmonomania, and Endless Things, published in May 2007. This series and Little, Big were cited when Crowley received the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature.

He is also the recipient of an Ingram Merrill Foundation grant. His recent novels are The Translator, recipient of the Premio Flaiano (Italy); Lord Byron’s Novel: The Evening Land, which contains an entire imaginary novel by the poet; and the aforementioned Four Freedoms, about workers at an Oklahoma defense plant during World War II. A novella, The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines, appeared in 2002. A museum-quality 25th anniversary edition of Little, Big, featuring the art of Peter Milton and a critical introduction by Harold Bloom, is in preparation for late 2012.

Crowley’s short fiction is collected in three volumes: Novelty (containing the World Fantasy Award-winning novella Great Work of Time), Antiquities, and Novelties & Souvenirs, an omnibus volume containing all his short fiction through its publication in 2004. A collection of essays and reviews entitled In Other Words was published in early 2007.

In 1989 Crowley and his wife Laurie Block founded Straight Ahead Pictures to produce media (film, video, radio and internet) on American history and culture. Crowley has written scripts for short films and documentaries, many historical documentaries for public television; his work has received numerous awards and has been shown at the New York Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, and many others. His scripts include The World of Tomorrow (on the 1939 World's Fair), No Place to Hide (on the bomb shelter obsession), The Hindenburg (for HBO), and FIT: Episodes in the History of the Body (American fitness practices and beliefs over the decades; with Laurie Block).^[2]

Crowley's correspondence with literary critic Harold Bloom, and their mutual appreciation, led in 1993 to Crowley taking up a post at Yale University, where he teaches courses in Utopian fiction, fiction writing, and screenplay writing. Bloom claimed on Contentville.com that Little, Big ranks among the five best novels by a living writer, and included Little, Big, Ægypt (The Solitudes), and Love & Sleep in his canon of literature (in the appendix to The Western Canon, 1994). In his Preface to Snake's-Hands, Bloom identifies Crowley as his "favorite contemporary writer", and the Ægypt series as his "favorite romance...after Little, Big".

Crowley has also taught at the Clarion West Writers' Workshop held annually in Seattle, Washington.

Awards[link]

• 1982: Little, Big received the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel^[4] and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award^[4]
• 1990: Great Work of Time received the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella^[4]
• 1992: American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.
• 1997: Gone received the Locus Award for Best Short Story^[4]
• 1999: "La Grande oeuvre du temps", the French language edition of "Great Work of Time", won the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, Nouvelle étrangère (Grand Prize for translated story)^[4][5]
• 2003: The Translator received the Italian Premio Flaiano^{[citation needed]}
• 2006: World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement^[4][6]

Bibliography[link]

Novels[link]

• The Deep, Doubleday (1975)
• Beasts, Doubleday (1976)
• Engine Summer, Doubleday (1979) — Bantam Books edition 1980 with cover art by Elizabeth Malczynski — John W. Campbell Memorial Award runner-up and BSFA Award finalist, 1980^[4]
• Little, Big, Bantam (1981) — cover art and inside illustrations by Elizabeth Malczynski — 1982 World Fantasy Award winner; Locus runner-up; BSFA, Hugo, and Nebula nominee^[4]
• Ægypt (first novel in the Ægypt tetralogy), Bantam (1987); revised and republished 2007 under intended original title, The Solitudes — 1988 WFA and Clarke Awards nominee^[4]
• Love & Sleep (second novel in the Ægypt tetralogy), Bantam (1994); revised 2008 — 1995 WFA nominee^[4]
• Dæmonomania (third novel in the Ægypt tetralogy), Bantam (2000); revised 2008
• The Translator, William Morrow (2002)
• Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land, William Morrow (2005)
• Endless Things (fourth and final novel in the Ægypt tetralogy), Small Beer Press (2007); revised 2009 — 2008 Locus Award fifth place^[4]
• Four Freedoms, William Morrow (2009)

Short fiction[link]

• "Antiquities" (1977)
• "Where Spirits Gat Them Home" (1978, later revised as "Her Bounty to the Dead")
• "The Single Excursion of Caspar Last" (1979, later incorporated into "Great Work of Time")
• "The Reason for the Visit" (1980)
• "The Green Child" (1981)
• "Novelty" (1983)
• "Snow" (1985) — 1985 Locus Award third place^[4]
• "The Nightingale Sings at Night" (1989)
• "Great Work of Time" (novella, originally published in Novelty, 1989), Bantam (1991) — 1990 World Fantasy Award and 1999 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire winner^[4]
• "In Blue" (1989)
• "Missolonghi 1824" (1990)
• "Exogamy" (1993)
• "Gone" (1996) — 1997 Locus Award winner^[4]
• "Lost and Abandoned" (1997)
• "An Earthly Mother Sits and Sings" (2000, published as an original chapbook by DreamHaven, illustrated by Charles Vess)
• "The War Between the Objects and the Subjects" (2002)
• "The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines" (novella, 2002, in Conjunctions: 39, The New Wave Fabulists, edited by Peter Straub)
• "Little Yeses, Little Nos" (2005)
• "Conversation Hearts" (2008; published as a chapbook by Subterranean Press)
• "And Go Like This" (2011, in Naked City anthology)

Collections[link]

• Novelty Bantam (1989); collects "The Nightingale Sings At Night", "Great Work of Time", "In Blue" and the previously published "Novelty".
• Antiquities: Seven Stories, Incunabula (1993); includes all of his stories to that point which were not included in Novelty
• Novelties and Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction, Perennial (2004); collects all of his short fiction up to that point, including "Great Work of Time", except "The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines".

Omnibuses[link]

• Beasts/Engine Summer/Little Big, QPBC (1991)
• Three Novels (1994; later published as Otherwise: Three Novels by John Crowley. It includes The Deep, Beasts, Engine Summer).

Screenplays[link]

• The World of Tomorrow (1984)
• Fit: Episodes in the History of the Body (1990, with Laurie Block)

Nonfiction[link]

• In Other Words, Subterranean Press (2007)

Audio books[link]

• Ægypt, Blackstone Audiobooks (2007; unabridged reading of The Solitudes by the author.)
• Little, Big, Blackstone Audiobooks (2011; unabridged reading by the author.)

Critical work concerning[link]

• Snake's-Hands: The Fiction of John Crowley, edited by Alice K. Turner and Michael Andre-Driussi, Cosmos (Canton, OH), 2003.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Crowley

• Crowley's blog
• john crowley: a pictorial bibliography
• John Crowley at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• The 25th Anniversary Edition of Little, Big
• John Crowley at the Internet Movie Database
• Straight Ahead Pictures, Inc
• John Crowley Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin

References[link]