The legend that the terrain of Tibet is in the shape of a female devil lying on her back dates back to the seventh century AD when Princess Wencheng entered Tibet. Tubo was at the time when Buddhism was beginning to emerge, and it absorbed foreign Buddhist culture from many aspects. Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty and Princess Chizun of Nepal successively married the King of Tibet, Songtsen Gampo, and brought Buddhist objects such as the Sakyamuni Buddha statue from their respective countries to Tibet, which was an important symbol of Tibet's acceptance of Buddhist culture at that time. Temples are the main places where Buddha statues are placed and Buddhist ideas are spread. They are also an important part of Buddhist culture. However, Princess Chizun of Nepal failed to build a temple in front of the palace, so she asked Princess Tang Wencheng to guess the location of the temple with a large sum of money. It is said that "Princess Wencheng made detailed observations based on the Central Plains' "Eighty Observations of Five Elements" and knew that the terrain of snowy Tibet resembles the shape of a Rakshasa witch lying on her back." Further investigation revealed that Lhasa’s Wotang Lake is the brainchild of the witch, the three mountains are the witch’s heart apertures and veins, Ramuqi (Raocha Temple) is the residence of the Dragon God, Lupu (Charalu at the foot of Yaowang Mountain) Pu) is the habitat of the black evil dragon, and under the poisonous tree of Dawaze is where ghosts and non-human beings live. A place in the southeast looks like an elephant in battle, etc. So he first adjusted the Feng Shui in and around Lhasa to calm down the succubus's heart and soul, and then built a palace on the Potala Palace Mountain to calm down the succubus's heart and soul. Niji Chizun followed Princess Wencheng's calculations. The Wotang Lake was filled up with the Goattuo Mountain, and the Jokhang Temple was built on it to enshrine the Buddha statues. After comprehensive management, Lhasa has the eight auspicious features. Then he started building the Twelve Temples for Suppressing Demons in Suru, Weizang, to suppress the limbs and joints of the female demon. It is commonly known as the Twelve Temples to suppress the female demon's expansion. It is said that these are the twelve unmovable nails that suppress the female demon
First, build the four town side temples in Siru, Weizang: that is, build the Changzhu Temple on the left shoulder of the Yoru female demon. It was located in Changzhu District, Nedong County, present-day Shannan region. Located on the east bank of the Yalong River, it is said that it was originally a pool with demons causing mischief in the water. The Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo transformed himself into a roc and cut off the water monsters. The ponds dried up and the Changzhu Temple still exists today. The building is large in scale and there are many cultural relics in the temple. It is a national key cultural relic protection unit. The Gaze Temple was built on the right shoulder of Wuru Shemo, located at the confluence of Xiurong River and Maqu River in Mozhugongka County, east of present-day Lhasa, on the east bank of Maqu River. According to Mr. Liu Liqian's research, there were originally two ancient temples here. One was built by King Songtsen Gampo Jimangsa Chijiang and is one of the four major border temples in the town. First, during the reign of King Trisong Detsen, Master Lotus subdued the poisonous dragon and made him swear to protect Buddhism and built a temple to worship him. Some people also believe that Tangjia is one of the temples near the town and was rebuilt by Lumei in the Later Hong period. Zhongbajiang Temple was built on the left foot of the female demon of Rula. Zhongbajiang may be translated as Zhongbajie or Zhangbajiong. It was located at the junction of Lazi and Pengcuolin in today's Katse area. It belonged to Rula in ancient times and is now in Lazi County. Located east of the Brahmaputra River. Zangchang Temple (Zhangzhang Temple) was built on the right foot of Yeru Demon, located on the north bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tubuga, southeast of Nanmulin County, Katse today. The above are the four major temples in Zhenlim or on the edge of the town. According to the survey, "If the 'succubus' cannot be restrained, four more important temples need to be built." That is to say, Loza Kunting Temple, also translated as Kongting Temple, was built on the left elbow of the female demon, and its current name is Loza Lakhang. The site is located at the confluence of Xiaqu River and Nuqu River in Luozha County, present-day Shannan. Its south side is close to the Bhutan Mountains. It is said that Rozalacan was a simple and rambling building with a wooden roof. It was later expanded and became grand, but it still maintained its simple character. Buqu Temple was built on the right elbow of Gongbu Demon, located in Bujiu District, Linzhi County, Linzhi Prefecture today. The temple was severely damaged by the earthquake in the Year of the Iron Tiger (1930) and was later ordered to be restored. However, the architecture and mural art are not what they used to be. Jiangzhadongzhe Temple, translated as Dunlhakang, was built on the left knee of the female demon. It was located in Zhongba County, Katse Prefecture today. The place where Zhengejie Temple (meaning Ziyun Hongshan Temple) descended on the right knee of the female demon is in the south of Jilong County in today's Katse region, close to the border between China and Nepal. The above four temples were historically known as the Zhenjie or Zhenbian four temples. Then based on calculations, four more Zhenyi temples were built. That is to say, Longtang Zhuoma Temple was built on the left palm of the female demon in Kham District, located in Dengke County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan today. It is said to have been built by craftsmen from Miyue in the Yanqing Dynasty (i.e. Xixia). Pengtang Jiqu Temple was built on the right palm of the female devil. According to Mr. Liu Liqianxian's research, Pengtang is the name of a place in central Bhutan, and Jiqu is the name of a river. It starts from the west gate of Lodzha opposite the door, passes through the Mailagajun Mountain in the southwest corner of Lodzha, and flows into Pengtang in Bhutan. This temple is located on the bank of Jiqu River in Pengtang, so it is named Pengtang Jiqu Temple. It is said that craftsmen from Tochar were invited to build it. The Cai Rixi Dolma Temple was built on the left heart of the female demon. The site is located in today's Ladakh region, which was originally under the jurisdiction of Tibet. The Cangbanong Lun Temple was built on the center of the female demon's right foot. It was located on the grassland of northern Tibet. Hall craftsmen were invited to build it. The above history is called the Four Temples of Zhenyi. *** is the Twelve Demonic Temple.
These demon-suppressing temples are just the main temples for suppressing female demons. In order to change some bad feng shui and perfect the eight auspicious signs, many small tunes, pagodas, etc. were built on the female devil. For example, Tibetan history records that in order to deal with the four major disasters of "earth, water, wind and fire", three temples, namely Gaqu, Gangqu and Linqu, were built in the east; two temples, Gulang and Xingkun, were built in the west; Langzhuo and Lintang temples were built; Geri and Bari temples were built in the north, etc. Judging from the location of the temple on the "Tibet Demon Suppression Map", the female demon is lying with her head east and feet west, and her heart is in Lhasa, the political, economic and cultural center of Tibet. This composition is reasonable and the arrangement is appropriate. Its geographical scope not only includes the four regions of Uizang and Tibet, but also partially extends beyond the current regional boundaries. The east side of the Demonic Suppression Map reaches Dengke, a Tibetan area in Sichuan, the south is bordered by Bhutan, the west is Ladakh, and the north includes the Qiangtang Grassland. Of course, a legend is a legend after all. It has a certain connection with history, but there is still a certain distance from historical facts. The "" drawn by Tibetan painters based on legends must also be different from the topographic map of Tibet. Since the image of a witch is to be drawn, it cannot exactly match the topographic map. Therefore, the locations of the temples on the Demon Suppression Map are only indicative and may not be very accurate, and some may even be misaligned. Rakshasa witch, in the eyes of many people, is synonymous with evil spirits. Moreover, Buddhist books also say: "Rakshasa is a common name for evil spirits." Rakshasa girls are "ghost girls who eat people." There are many Rakshasa girls listed in Buddhist books, including the so-called Eight Great Rakshasa Girls and the Ten Great Rakshasa Girls. Women, seventy-two Rakshasa women, five hundred Rakshasa women, etc. They all describe the image of Rakshasa girls as very ferocious and terrifying, saying that they are green-faced, fanged, bloody-mouthed hungry ghosts who cannibalize human flesh and drink human grates. In short, the Rakshasa girl is a fierce spirit that must be suppressed. If she is not suppressed, there will be no peaceful life in Tibet. However, when you unfold the "Tibet Demon Suppression Map", you will see that although the witch has long nails and two protruding front teeth, she has The image is not that scary. On the contrary, the witch is painted unusually plump, with veins and flesh, as if her blood is still flowing. And with a little bit of curvy beauty, although she can't be called a "beautiful woman", she is not very disgusting. Of course, no one can tell what the Rakshasa Witch's true form is like. The image of the witch in "Tibet Demon Suppression Picture" was only imagined based on the artist's inspiration. As the saying goes, it is easier to draw ghosts than to draw people. Strictly speaking, things that no one has seen before are the most similar to them. Whatever you draw is what it looks like. Once the painting is done and people recognize it, future generations will follow suit. There are two important Rakshasa women in Tibetan legends. One is the Rock Rakshasa, which is closely related to the origin of the Tibetan people. She later fell in love with the macaques inspired by Guanyin Bodhisattva and gave birth to millions of Tibetan men and women, becoming the Tibetan people. The first grandmother of mankind, she is hosted and admired by people. The other is the Rakshasa succubus who raised the Tibetan people and became the mother earth who nurtured the Tibetan people to grow and thrive. These two kinds of Rakshasa women are ugly demons in appearance, but spiritually they are just accidents that people get close to and worship. Therefore, the painter was very ingenious when conceiving this painting " ", not only to express the form of the witch, but also to cater to people's psychological state of belief. It seems that the author of this thangka in the early Qing Dynasty has achieved a high degree of unity and combination of the two through his careful design and skillful painting techniques, becoming a wonderful folk art with perfect ideological content and painting techniques. excellent work.