Princess Nibo brought the Buddhist culture of Tianzhu and Nibo to Tubo, and Princess Wencheng brought the advanced farming and textile technology of the Tang Dynasty to Tubo. At present, Chinese culture has been deeply integrated into the social life of Tibetan people, such as observation, smell, questioning and meditation by Tibetan doctors, water mills all over Tibet's agricultural areas, water-like patterns on residential walls, golden domes and bucket arches in temples, and so on. The characteristics of women's back cushion in Tang Dynasty still exist in two places. One is Tibetan women, especially those in rural areas. Back pads are still very popular. There are Japanese women's kimonos, but their back pads have become a kind of decoration.
Legend has it that when Sakyamuni lay dying under the bodhi tree, his disciples begged the Buddha to leave a true image to guide all living beings to pass it on from generation to generation. Buddha agreed. Then the disciples created three Buddha statues at the age of 8, 12 and 30 respectively. Among them, the 8-year-old and 12-year-old statues were created after asking Sakyamuni's wet nurse to describe the Buddha as a teenager. After Sakyamuni personally blessed three Buddha statues, he died under the bodhi tree. When Nirvana Bhrikuti Devi entered Tibet, the dowry of Nirvana King to Tubo Sambo was an 8-year-old Buddha statue. During the Zhenguan period of Princess Wencheng in the Tang Dynasty, she brought a 12 year old Buddha statue to Tubo. At present, the four statues of Hercules on both sides of the front porch of the main hall of Jokhang Temple are said to be the Hercules of the Tang Dynasty who pushed the cart when Princess Wencheng entered Tibet.
At the beginning, Princess Wencheng and her party had just entered the Lhasa Valley, and the wooden cart carrying the 12-year-old Buddha statue was stuck in a piece of sand. The four Hercules tried their best to make the car move half a step. Princess Wencheng said that it seems that the Buddha is willing to sacrifice here. So let people surround the Buddha with a cloth curtain. Songzan Gambu fulfilled Princess Wencheng's wish, and specially built the Xiaozhao Temple dedicated to the Buddha statue of 12 years old, with the facade of the temple facing Chang 'an. Now, the front door of Xiao Zhao Temple is a granite street. Turn a corner and you will arrive at the bustling Barkhor Street. After Songzan Gambu built Jokhang Temple for Princess Wencheng, he also wanted to build Jokhang Temple for Bhrikuti Devi to worship the 8-year-old Buddha statue.
Princess Wencheng told Songzan Gambu by divination in the Han Dynasty that the snowy plateau is the shape of a banshee in Luo Cha, and the lake in the middle of Lhasa Valley is the heart of a banshee in Luo Cha. Only by building a temple here can we suppress the female demons and make Tubo flourish. According to Tibetan books on the history of Lhasa, Songzan Gambu listened to Princess Wencheng's suggestion and asked the white goat to carry the soil, put it on the lake with a wooden frame, filled it with a layer of soil and put it on the wooden frame until the lake was filled up. On the west wall of Jokhang Temple Hall, people can see a mural depicting the scene of Songzan Gambu leading the people to build Jokhang Temple.
Now, in the south corner of the Jokhang Temple Hall, you may also see a bluestone urn half a person high. According to the Lama in the temple, the stone urn was left when Jokhang Temple was built. The small hole in the stone leads directly to the lake. Bow your head down to the stone urn and stick to your ear hole, and you can hear the cries of wild ducks in the lake. It is said that if you practice well, you can still hear the groans of Luo Cha female demons.
After the death of Songtsan Gampo, war broke out in Tubo, Jokhang Temple was swept away, and the eight-year-old Buddha statue brought to Tibet by Nibo Bhrikuti Devi was destroyed by the war. Some eminent monks and devout nobles secretly hid the Buddha statue of 12 years old in a small hall of Jokhang Temple. The method of hiding is the same as that of the historical books, papers and picture books of Wei, Jin and Tang Dynasties hidden by monks in Mogao Grottoes. The door of the small hall is sealed with mud and stone, then smoothed with mud and painted with murals. Until the thirty-sixth generation of Tubo King Chide Zudan, Tang Zhongzong married Princess Jincheng to the Tubo King, and Tubo once again set off a fever of Buddhist culture. Knowing that the 12-year-old Buddha statue was backward, Princess Jincheng invited it out of the wall of secret storage and continued to worship it in Jokhang Temple.
There is a saying in Buddhism that "blessing opens the light". "Blessing and opening the light" is to give ordinary buildings or statues in Buddhist places the true meaning of Buddhism under the auspices of Taoist priests. That is, through chanting and other ceremonies, earthly clay tires, bronze carvings and wood are attached to the spirituality of the Buddha. The 12-year-old Buddha statue enshrined in Jokhang Temple was carved by Buddha Sakyamuni when he was alive, and the Buddha himself opened the light. Then, to pay homage to the Jokhang Temple 12-year-old Buddha statue is like seeing the real Buddha of Sakyamuni.
Three Buddha statues personally blessed by Buddha Sakyamuni, the 8-year-old Buddha was destroyed by war; The 30-year-old Buddha was secretly sent to a sailboat by some believers during the war in Tianzhu, ready to cross the ocean and worship abroad. In the storm, the ship was overturned by huge waves, and the 30-year-old Buddha sank into the South Indian Ocean. The only one who survived was the 12-year-old Buddha statue brought to Tibet by Princess Wencheng. Its sacredness and preciousness can be imagined.
Historically, the largest maintenance and expansion of Jokhang Temple was completed by Zong Kaba, the founder of Yellow Sect, at the beginning of15th century. This expansion has enabled Jokhang Temple to have five golden roofs, 108 Buddhist temples and a spectacular scale of more than 25,000 square meters. Upon completion, Zong Kaba presented Sakyamuni 12-year-old Buddha with a pure gold five-Buddha crown, and held the first lecture of Gelug Sect (Yellow Sect) in Jokhang Temple on the 15th day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar.
Now, Tibetan Buddhists from all over Tibet, as well as Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu, go to Tibet to worship Buddha, and their greatest wish is to worship Sakyamuni, the "Juewo Rinpoche" in Jokhang Temple. In Tibet, pious kowtowers can be seen in both high mountains and valleys and vast grasslands. The ultimate destination of these believers who measure the earth with their bodies is the blue slate in front of Jokhang Temple. When they prostrated themselves before the statue of Sakyamuni, they felt that all the hard work was worth it.
In the world of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet, Jokhang Temple is the center of the circle. Lhasa has three turning roads. The first is a corridor around Sakyamuni Buddha, the main hall of Jokhang Temple, which is called "corridor" in Tibetan. There is a circle of copper prayer wheel in the prayer wheel of this temple. Walking in the "corridor", Buddhists recite the scriptures while walking, and dial the scriptures with their hands, making a hurried sound. The second turning road around Jokhang Temple is called "Eight Exit". When Jokhang Temple was built in the early 7th century, there were some Buddhist tents around the temple. Later, more businessmen built houses. Later, the famous Bajiao Street in Lhasa gradually formed. The third turning road is called "Linkuo". This turning road surrounds the whole city of Lhasa. When you get up in the morning, you can see an endless stream of menstrual changers, most of whom are elderly people. Taking Jokhang Temple as the center and looking out, the long Buddhist path covering the whole snowy plateau is distributed radially.