Jowo (statue)
Encyclopedia
Jowo Shakyamuni or Jowo Rinpoche (Wylie
Wylie transliteration
The Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English language typewriter. It bears the name of Turrell V. Wylie, who described the scheme in an article, A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription, published in 1959...

 jo bo rin po che) is, with Jowo Mikyö Dorje, the most sacred statue in Tibet. Jowo Rinpoche is housed in the Jokhang
Jokhang
The Jokhang, , also called the Qokang Monastery, Jokang, Jokhang Temple, Jokhang Monastery or Zuglagkang , is located on Barkhor Square in Lhasa. For most Tibetans it is the most sacred and important temple in Tibet. It is in some regards pan-sectarian, but is presently controlled by the Gelug school...

 temple and Jowo Mikyö Dorje in the Ramoche temple in Lhasa.

History

The Jowo Rinpoche statue has a long history and is said to have been personally blessed by the Buddha. It came to be owned by the king of Magadha
Magadha
Magadha formed one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas or kingdoms in ancient India. The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganga; its first capital was Rajagriha then Pataliputra...

, who gave it to a Tang
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

 emperor of China. The emperor's daughter, Wenchen Kongjo. carried it to Lhasa via Lhagang in a wooden cart when she married King Songtsen Gampo
Songtsen Gampo
Songtsän Gampo Songtsän Gampo Songtsän Gampo (Tibetan: སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ་, Wylie: Srong-btsan sGam-po, 569–649?/605–649? was the founder of the Tibetan Empire (Tibetan: Bod; ), by tradition held to be the thirty-third ruler in his dynasty. In the Chinese records, his name is given as 'Sōngzàngānbù'...

. During Mangsong Mangtsen
Mangsong Mangtsen
Mangsong Mangtsen, Trimang Löntsen or Khri-mang-slon-rtsan succeeded to the throne after the death of his grandfather, Songtsän Gampo, and was the second emperor of the newly created Tibetan Empire....

's reign (649-676), because of a threat that the Tang Chinese might invade, Princess Wencheng is said to have hidden the statue of Jowo Rinpoche in a secret chamber in the Jokhang. Princess Jincheng, sometime after 710 CE, had it placed in the central chapel of the Jokhang
Jokhang
The Jokhang, , also called the Qokang Monastery, Jokang, Jokhang Temple, Jokhang Monastery or Zuglagkang , is located on Barkhor Square in Lhasa. For most Tibetans it is the most sacred and important temple in Tibet. It is in some regards pan-sectarian, but is presently controlled by the Gelug school...

. It was replaced at Ramoche by a statue of Jowo Mikyo Dorje, a small bronze statue of the Buddha when he was eight years old, crafted by Vishvakarman, and brought to Lhasa by the Nepalese queen, Bhrikuti
Bhrikuti
The Nepali Princess Bhrikuti Devi, known to Tibetans as Bal-mo-bza' Khri-btsun, Bhelsa Tritsun or, simply, Khri bTsun , is traditionally considered to have been the first wife of the earliest emperor of Tibet, Songtsän Gampo , and an incarnation of Tara...

. Jowo Mikyo Dorje have been badly damaged by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...

.

The Ramoche temple was gutted and partially destroyed in the 1960s and the bronze statue disappeared. In 1983 the lower part of it was said to have been found in a Lhasa rubbish tip, and the upper half in Beijing. They have now been joined and the statue is housed in the Ramoche Temple, which was partially restored in 1986, and still showed severe damage in 1993.

These restoration of the Jowo was possible thanks to Ribur Rinpoche (1923-2006), a revered lama who was jailed by the Chinese Army in 1959 for 20 years in Lhasa and was released in 1979 in connection with the liberalization politic of Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...

. Ribur Rinpoche was granted with a position at Office of Religious Affairs of Tibet and he aimed at bringing back spiritual sacred treasures taken to China. In 1983, with the help of the 10th Panchen Lama, he could succeed in finding the upper part of Jowo Mikyö Dorje and bring it back to Tibet. Panchen Lama explained to the Chinese how sacred the value of Jowos was for Tibetans and that their response to the quest of Ribur Rinpoche would be a mean to judge the sincerity of the new Chinese religious politic.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK