Dzongkar

Tibetan name
Tibetan script : རྫོང་ དཀར་ རྫོང་ ཁ་ རྫོང་ དགའ་
Wylie transliteration : rdzong dkar
Official transcription of the PRCh : Zonggar
THDL transcription : Dzongkar
Chinese name
Traditional : 宗 嘎 (historical: 宗 喀)
Pinyin : Zōnggā (Zōngkā)

Dzongkar ( Tib .: rdzong dkar), "White Fortress", or more fully Khyungdzong karpo (Tib .: khyung rdzong dkar po ), "White Fortress of Garuda", is the name of the castle of the kings of Mangyül Gungthang (Tib .: mang yul gung thang ), who ruled from under the jurisdiction of Sakya over the regions of Dzongkar, Kyirong and Mustang from 1265 to 1620 . The fortress is located in southwest Tibet north of the Kyirong valley, on the upper reaches of the Zhorong Tsangpo (Tib .: gzho rong gtsang po ).

Like a Garuda (Tib .: khyung po ) floating in the sky , according to the Tibetans, the impressive fortress, which once had a surrounding wall with thirteen defense towers, lies at the top of a plateau, which is framed by two rivers that run 50 meters deeper , the Zhorong Tsangpo and a tributary that flows into the main river just below the castle. In addition to the royal palace, the Gungthang Tsuglagkhang (Tib .: gung thang gtsug lag khang ), the most important sanctuary of Mangyül Gungthang, was the real attraction of the fortress.

The castle is not to be confused with the name of the administrative district. The latter was introduced after the collapse of the Mangyül Gungthang Kingdom by the Tibetan central government under the leadership of the 5th Dalai Lama around 1644. However, his name is Dzongkha (Tib .: rdzong kha ) or Dzongga (Tib .: rdzong dga ' ), the latter spelling possibly spoiled.

literature

• Peter Aufschnaiter: Land and Places of Milarepa . East and West, 26 (1976): 1-2, pp. 175-189.
• Franz-Karl Ehrhard: The statue and the temple of Ārya Va-ti bzang-po. A contribution to the history and geography of Tibetan Buddhism . Reichert, Wiesbaden 2004
• Karl-Heinz Everding: The Kingdom of Mang-yul Gung-thang. Royalty and rulership in Tibet from the 13th to 17th centuries Century . 2 parts. VGH Wissenschaftsverlag, Bonn 2000.

Footnotes

1. ↑ 陈观胜 、 安 才 旦 (Ed.): རྒྱ་ དབྱིན་ བོད་ གསུམ་ ཤན་ སྦྱར་ གྱི་ བོད་ སྐད་ ཀྱི་ མི་ མིང་ དང་ དང་ ས་ མིང་ གཏེར་ མཛོད. 外文 出版社, Beijing 2004, ISBN 7-119-03497-9 , p. 378.

Coordinates: 28 ° 55 ′ 31.5 "  N , 85 ° 20 ′ 30.8"  E