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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 December 2008
Although practicing Buddhists and historians of Tibet are well aware of the Ra Mo Che Temple in Lhasa, very little about the building and its history has been published. Situated a short distance north-west of the more-famous Ra Sa gTsug Lag Khang or Jo Khang, the temple received, according to the dBa' bZhed, the Buddha image brought to Tibet in the time of the Tang princess Ong Jo. Early in the reign of Khri Srong lDe bTsan, while the king was still in his minority, anti-Buddhist factions led by Zhang Ma Zham Khrom Pa sKyes circumscribed royal power and murdered the pro-Buddhist minister Zhang sNa Nam Khri Thong rJe Thang la ‘Bar. They also arranged for the image at Ra Mo Che to be removed from the temple. The plan was to return the Buddha to China, along with the head priest and his entourage. The statue's great weight, however, thwarted the scheme. After being dragged a short distance, the Buddha was left half-buried in the earth. The state of affairs in those days is indicated by dBa' bZhed which reports that the Lhasa vihāra was turned into a workshop with sheep carcasses hung from the arms of the principal holy images and entrails wound round their necks! After Buddhism was reinstated, the Ra Mo Che was returned to worship. Subject to campaigns of refurbishment and additions through the centuries, it was the centre of a number of important developments, notably becoming the seat of the upper Tantric college (rGyud sTod) established by rJe bTsun Kun dGa' Don Drub in 1474.
1 In western historiography we have found little or no comment on the temple except Heller, Amy in Tibetan Art: Towards a Definition of Style, ed. Singer, J. C. and Denwood, P. (London, 1997), pp. 88–89Google Scholar. We owe this reference to John Clarke. We do not exactly share the Heller's skepticism (based on Richardson) about the connection with Ong Jo (Kong Jo). In the dBa' bZhed the princess does not actually build the temple (see next note) and anyway she was not the sole agent but part of a ‘cultural packet’ that came with the marital link to the Tang dynasty. The most useful summary of the temple's history is Dung dKar Blo bZang ‘Phrin Las, Dung dKar Tshig mDzond Chen Mo (Beijing, 2002): pp. 1881–1883.
2 Wangdu, Pasang and Diemberger, Hildegard, dBa' bZhed: The Royal Chronicle Concerning the Bringing of the Buddha's Doctrine to Tibet (Vienna, 2000)Google Scholar. We read from the facsimile folio 3 recto (lines 3–4): Ong Cos gSer Gyi Lha Shakya Mu Ne Cig rGya Yul Nas [annotation below line: rTa Pa 1 Gi Pang La Khyer Nas] sPyan Drangs Pa Yang Ra Mo Cher bZhugs Te, i.e. ‘A gold image of Lord Śākyamuni, brought by Ong Co from the land of China [carried on the lap of a single horseman], was also installed at Ramoche’. Later in the narrative the Hva Shang in the temple, a servant of the princess, is ordered back to China.
3 dBa' bZhed, folio 4 verso (line 6).
4 dBa' bZhed, folio 4 recto (line 7) to 4 verso (line 1): ‘Bal rJe Khol La gTad De bZhag Nas Lus Po Sas gYogs Te bZhag Na Nang Par sKu sTod Yan Chad Lang Nge Myu Zhing gDa’ Bar Gyur, i.e. ‘After entrusting (it) to ‘Bal rJe Khol, they left the statue covered with earth, but the next morning it had emerged conspicuously from the waist up’.
5 dBa' bZhed, folio 4 verso (lines 4–5).
6 ‘Phrin Las, op. cit., p. 1882 with further details regarding the later history of the temple.
7 ‘Bur, Ri, dGe sDig Las Kyi Myong Ba [‘The Experience of Virtuous and Evil Acts’] (Dharamsala, Tibetan Cultural Printing Press, 1988)Google Scholar.
8 A book by the author entitled How to Generate Bodhicitta, published by the Amitabha Buddhist Center, Singapore, is reported to have been printed but we have not traced a copy.
9 Name variants according to the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (http://www.tbrc.org); title: ri ‘bur sprul sku rgyal bstan ngag dbang rgya mtsho; primary title: ser smad ri ‘bur sprul sku rgyal bstan ngag dbang rgya mtsho; personal name: mgar thar tshe ring; personal monastic name: ngag dbang phul byung.
10 Clarifications have been added here and there in square parenthesis, otherwise we have kept commentary to a minimum. Tibetan words are transcribed according to the Wylie system apart from obvious words like Dalai Lama which have entered English. Chinese names are transcribed as they were written in Tibetan except for obvious place names like Beijing etc.
11 The term used is sNyan Dar, more popularly these are called Kha bTags.
12 This is the first reference in this text to the full name of the “Jo Bo”, its history outlined in ‘Phrin Las, op. cit., p. 1882. The image of Mi bsKyod rDo rJe (= Akṣobhya Vajra) is said to be that of the youthful eight-year old Buddha brought to Tibet by the Nepali wife of Khri Srong bTsan sGampo, first installed in the Jo Khang but shifted to Ra Mo Che after the king's death.
13 A decorative wooden box filled with wheat, barley and rTsam Pa topped with butter.
14 This statement documents that the inspiration to restore the Ra Mo Che temple can be traced to early 1983.