Princess Wencheng – A famous queen in Tibetan history

Princess Wencheng – A famous queen in Tibetan history

Princess Wencheng was the most famous and beloved queen in Tibetan history, with Princess Bhrikuti for Nepal. About 1,300 years ago, this beautiful and intelligent princess of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) left the capital Chang'an (present-day Xi'an in Shanxi Province) for the Tubo Kingdom, today's Tibet, which was about 2,000 miles away in the southwest. She brought the Tibetans many of the scientific and agricultural advances of the Tang dynasty and is also credited with the introduction of Buddhism into the region. She was to join Songtsan Gambo, King of Tubo, to whom her royal father had just married. It was a famous peace-making marriage in the Tang Dynasty.

Prince Wencheng was a daughter of a courtier. This interracial matrimony helped strengthen the ties between the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo Kingdom. At that time, Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty needed to find a bride for King Songtsen Gampo, the new ruler of the Tubo Kingdom (Tibet), and smart and pretty Wencheng seemed an ideal match. She was conferred the title of princess and sent west. The story of Princess Wencheng and Songtsan Gambo has been cherished by the Tibetans and the rest of the Chinese people ever since.

Nowadays, the statues of Princess Wencheng and Songtsan Gambo are still in the Jokhang Monastery. Songtsan Bambo had the Ramoche Monastery built for the Buddha statues that Princess Wencheng had brought with her. The princess herself also had the Jokhang Monastery built, and in front of it she and Songtsan Gambo planted some willow trees now known as tangliu (the Tang willow). Today, the original statue of Sakyamuni believed to be brought by Princess Wencheng is still enshrined in the center of the main hall of the Jokhang Monastery.

Songtsan Gambo died in 650 when he was only thirty-four years old. Prince Wencheng passed away thirty years later. A ceremonious funeral was held for the beloved princess. Generation after generation of poets have written numerous verses to eulogize her. Her story was adapted to various theatrical forms. Two traditional observations have been devoted to her: the fifteenth day of the fourth month of each Tibetan year (the day when Princess Wencheng arrived in Tubo) and the fifteenth day of the tenth month of each Tibetan year (the birthday of Princess Wencheng). When the days come each year, the Tibetan people will turn out in their best costumes to sing and dance to commemorate her. Her statue and that of Songtsan Gambo are worshiped in the Jokhang Monastery. The chamber where they spent their first married life is still kept intact in the Potala Palace.