Brief introduction of Sakya Temple attractions:
Sakya Temple, located in Sakya County, Shigatse region, is the first temple of Sakya Sect and is known as the second Dunhuang. Sakya Temple, founded by the founder of Sakya Sect, has a history of more than 900 years. At the beginning, the Sagar dynasty ruled Tibet for more than 70 years, and a large number of cultural relics were preserved in the temple, including thousands of Sanskrit Bayeux scriptures copied by writers who collected all the books of His Holiness Sakya Basiba, as well as detailed hand-painted murals. Different from Dunhuang, Dunhuang is now a historical relic, while Sakya Temple has been handed down from generation to generation.
To go to Shigatse, you must go to Sakya Temple. Sakya Temple is located in Sakya County, southwest of Shigatse 130 km. You can bring your own lunch back and forth in one day. The temple is known as "the second Dunhuang" because of its vast artistic treasure and high cultural value.
From Xigaze westbound 170km, it is the Sakya Temple Basin sandwiched between the Gangdise Mountains and the Himalayas. The purple "castle" standing in the middle of the valley is the famous Sakya Temple.
In fact, the "castle" is just south of Sakya Temple. Sakya Temple is divided into South Temple and North Temple. The South Temple is built on a flat valley, and the North Temple is built on a hillside in the north. The name of that mountain is Benbo Mountain, and the mountain is gray. "Sakya" means dust. Sakya North Temple was founded by Gongjue Jeb in 1073, and gradually formed the famous Sakya Sect. The North Temple is gone now. At first glance, the vast ruins in the north still have the majesty of the year. Sporadic cottages spread along the foot of the mountain to the plain until they are connected with the county seat. Those chic houses are arranged in an orderly way, and the quaint streets and lanes are also well organized. This unique hut is rare in Tibet.
Sagana Temple is well preserved. Built in 1268. It is a typical castle building in Yuan Dynasty, covering an area of about 45,000 square meters. Its appearance is very special. It has two walls, a crib on the wall, watchtowers at the four corners and a moat outside. The gate is in the shape of "I", and the whole plane is a big "back" with a small "back", which smacks of war defense. The color of the wall is not only purple, but also black and white, which is an important symbol of Sakya Sect. Purple symbolizes Manjusri Bodhisattva, black symbolizes King Kong's protection, and white symbolizes Guanyin Bodhisattva. Three colors become flowers, so it is commonly known as "flower education".
Daxiong Hall is called "Lacan Qinmo", which means Great Temple. There are 40 big pillars in the hall, four of which are the thickest pillars, and only three people can hold them together. The thickest one is1.5m in diameter. The locals gave them some funny names, such as the thickest one called "Seqin Gawa, Ghana", which means the pillar sent by the Yuan Dynasty. There is a folk story that "the emperor gave pillars". It is said that when Basiba built the South Temple, the emperor heard about it and gave him this 4-foot-diameter pillar. Whether it is good or not, it is too big to be transported to Tibet. Ba Shiba returned to Sakya with regret. Unexpectedly, the pillar appeared on the Zhongqu River in the north of Temple.
The legend was told very seriously. The other three thick pillars, which are called "pillars sent by tigers", "pillars sent by wild yaks" and "pillars sent by Poseidon", all have their own interesting stories. These pillars are indomitable and have no seams. According to textual research, they come from Tangchen Mountain Valley in the south of sagar County and belong to Himalayan Nature Reserve.
The hall is dedicated to the Buddha statues of Sakyamuni III and Sakyamuni's five ancestors, and there is also the His Holiness Sakya Pagoda in the Lingta Hall. The five ancestors of Sakya Sect are almost known to women and children in the local area, and many people can tell several stories. Sakya Sect was once the dominant Sect in Tibet, and its leaders all came from the Kun family. The Kun family is an old aristocratic family in the Tubo period. It is said that during the period of Chisong Dêzain, the Kun family did interior decoration. The founder of the Five Sakyamuni after Jeb Miyahashi was honored as the founder of the Five Sakyamuni.
There are tens of thousands of square meters of Yuan Dynasty murals in Sakya Temple, among which His Holiness Sakya and Datura are the most distinctive, and only Datura murals have more than 130. Sakya Temple has a vast collection of books, with more than 2,800 handwritten classics in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The Bayeux Sutra, which originated in ancient India and has a history of thousands of years, is rare in the world. However, there are still a large number of Bayeux Sutra in Sakya Temple in medicine, astronomy and calendar, and 3636 leaves are written in Tibetan, Chinese and Mongolian. Only Sakya Temple has the best preserved gold powder cinnabar copying Tibetan scriptures. In addition, there are seals, seals and so on. The emperor of the Yuan Dynasty gave it to local officials in Sakya.