a land of Tibet

We're travelling down the Yarlung valley to the caves of Sheldrak along the Yarlung Shampo chu! Yarlung is the place where the reign of the Yarlung Kings began! The three caves here are sacred places of great power associated with Padmsambhava , Yeshe Tsogyel, and centuries later, great Terton treasure finders. Not far from there is a sacred spring that was created from the dry rock by one of Padmasambhava's disciples. A bit south of Sheldrak is one of the Yarlung's three sacred stupas; it is said to either hold a crystal sculpture of the Buddha made as a gift for the King Trisong Detsen or the very armor King Songsten Gampo wore in his struggles to unify Tibet. The demons hadn't been subdued yet so Tibet was a rather frightening place! In fact it was said that the mountain deities would war with each other. I've read somewhere that Nyenchen Tanglha has a flat top because the mountain spirit had his head cut off by the spirit of Yarlha Shampo which consequently has a large mass in front of it corresponding to the head of Nyenchen Tanglha. Yikes! Anyway, there are many levels of understanding with these myths but all of them attempt to describe the terrifying grandeur of these sacred mountains. To the west of the valley is Mount Lhababri to whence the first King of Tibet is said to have descended from the sky. This area has tremendous significance to Tibetans who believe that at Tsetang or "playground" is where a monkey frolicked with an ogress; their descendants were the first Tibetans! There's lots more here but we can add to the notes a bit later beautiful one!


	Through My Eyes * We're travelling down the Yarlung valley to the caves of Sheldrak along the Yarlung Shampo chu! Yarlung is the place where the reign of the Yarlung Kings began! The three caves here are sacred places of great power associated with Padmsambhava , Yeshe Tsogyel, and centuries later, great Terton treasure finders. Not far from there is a sacred spring that was created from the dry rock by one of Padmasambhava's disciples. A bit south of Sheldrak is one of the Yarlung's three sacred stupas; it is said to either hold a crystal sculpture of the Buddha made as a gift for the King Trisong Detsen or the very armor King Songsten Gampo wore in his struggles to unify Tibet. The demons hadn't been subdued yet so Tibet was a rather frightening place! In fact it was said that the mountain deities would war with each other. I've read somewhere that Nyenchen Tanglha has a flat top because the mountain spirit had his head cut off by the spirit of Yarlha Shampo which consequently has a large mass in front of it corresponding to the head of Nyenchen Tanglha. Yikes! Anyway, there are many levels of understanding with these myths but all of them attempt to describe the terrifying grandeur of these sacred mountains. To the west of the valley is Mount Lhababri to whence the first King of Tibet is said to have descended from the sky. This area has tremendous significance to Tibetans who believe that at Tsetang or "playground" is where a monkey frolicked with an ogress; their descendants were the first Tibetans! There's lots more here but we can add to the notes a bit later beautiful one! * courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions. The information for the sketches is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje. ( please click here to return to my spinning for you!)