Qualla: Yungbulakang Palace

Yungbulakang Palace: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Preston Rhea, CC BY-SA 2.0. According to Tibetan legend, King Nyatri Tsenpo did not walk into the Yarlung Valley. He descended from the sky into a field of yaks, and the nomadic herders who witnessed it carried him on their shoulders and made him their chief. That was 127 BCE, the beginning of the Tibetan Royal Era. The palace they built for him still stands, or rather stands again, on a hilltop above the Yarlung River: Yumbulagang, reputed to be the oldest building in Tibet.

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Image: Preston Rhea | CC BY-SA 2.0

Yungbulakang Palace: The Hilltop Fortress

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Laika ac from UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. Yumbulagang rises from a rocky promontory at a bend in the Yarlung Tsampo River, on the eastern bank of the Yarlung Valley. It sits about 192 kilometers southeast of Lhasa and nine kilometers south of Tsetang. The palace is divided into front and rear sections. The front is a thr...

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Image: Laika ac from UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

Yungbulakang Palace: Gifts That Fell from the Sky

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Preston Rhea, CC BY-SA 2.0. Five generations of kings passed before Yumbulagang's next defining moment. During the reign of the 28th king, Thothori Nyantsen, in the 5th century AD, a golden stupa, a tsa-tsa mold, and a Mahayana sutra are said to have fallen from the sky onto the palace roof. The king could ...

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Image: Preston Rhea | CC BY-SA 2.0

Yungbulakang Palace: Destruction and Resurrection

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Yumbulagang survived for roughly two millennia before the Cultural Revolution reached the Yarlung Valley between 1966 and 1976. The palace and its shrine were demolished. What had weathered centuries of conflict, weather, and the slow erosion of time could not survive a decade of...

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Image: Gerd Eichmann | CC BY-SA 4.0

Yungbulakang Palace: The First Field

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Northwest of the palace lies Zorthang, traditionally regarded as the largest cultivated area in Tibet and possibly its first. Even today, farmers from across the region sprinkle soil from Zorthang on their own fields to ensure a good harvest, a practice that transforms ordinary d...

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Image: Gerd Eichmann | CC BY-SA 4.0