Misplaced Pages

#217782

77-645: The Lhasa River , also called Kyi Chu ( Tibetan : སྐྱིད་ཆུ་ , Wylie : sKyid chu , Chinese : 拉薩河 ; pinyin : Lāsà hé ), is a northern tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in the south of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The Yarlung Tsangpo is the upper section of the Brahmaputra River . The Lhasa River is subject to flooding with the summer monsoon rains, and structures have been built to control

154-502: A result, in all modern Tibetan dialects and in particular in the Standard Tibetan of Lhasa , there is a great divergence between current spelling, which still reflects the 9th-century spoken Tibetan, and current pronunciation. This divergence is the basis of an argument in favour of spelling reform , to write Tibetan as it is pronounced ; for example, writing Kagyu instead of Bka'-rgyud . The nomadic Amdo Tibetan and

231-425: A two-storied pavilion, is opposite the entry gate. The 8th Dalai Lama , Jamphel Gyatso (1758–1804) substantially enlarged the palace by adding three temples and the perimeter walls on the south east sector and the park also came to life with plantation of fruit trees and evergreens brought from various parts of Tibet. The garden was well developed with a large retinue of gardeners. To the northwest of Kelsang Phodrong

308-521: A “Grade 4 A at the National Tourism (spot) level,” in 2001. It was also declared a public park in 1959. Sho Dun Festival , also spelt Shoton Festival, (popularly known as the "yogurt festival") is an annual festival held at Norbulingka. The date for the festival is set according to the Tibetan calendar , which is a Lunar-based calendar. The festival is celebrated during the seventh month in

385-524: Is a palace and surrounding park in Lhasa , China built from 1755. It served as the traditional summer residence of the successive Dalai Lamas from the 1780s up until the 14th Dalai Lama 's exile in 1959. Part of the "Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace ", Norbulingka is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site , and was added as an extension of this Historic Ensemble in 2001. It was built by

462-582: Is above freezing on sunny days. A visitor described the valley around Lhasa in 1889 as follows, The plain over which we are riding is a wonderfully fruitful one. It is skirted on the south by the Kyi river, and is watered, moreover, by another smaller stream from the north, which flows into the Kyi ... some five miles west of Lhasa. All this land is carefully irrigated by means of dikes and cross-channels from both rivers. Fields of buckwheat, barley, pea, rape, and lindseed lie in orderly series everywhere. The meadows near

539-457: Is at an elevation of 13,390 feet (4,080 m) above sea level. The project includes a reservoir and a power station with potential annual generating capacity of 599 million kilowatt hours. The project, also called the Pangduo hydro project, impounds 1,170,000,000 cubic metres (4.1 × 10 cu ft) of water. It is planned to irrigate 435.2 square kilometres (168.0 sq mi). Damming of

616-589: Is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê script . This writing system is used across the Himalayas and Tibet . The script is closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity, spanning across areas in India , Nepal , Bhutan and Tibet. The Tibetan script is of Brahmic origin from the Gupta script and is ancestral to scripts such as Lepcha , Marchen and

693-660: Is commonly used in Tibet to define all horticultural parks in Lhasa and other cities. When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, Norbulingka was renamed 'People's Park' and opened to the public. The palace, with 374 rooms, is located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of the Potala Palace , which was the winter palace. It is in the western suburb of Lhasa City on the bank of the Kyichu River . When construction of

770-465: Is demarcated under five distinct sections. A cluster of buildings to the left of the entrance gate is the Kelsang Phodang (The full name of this palace is "bskal bzang bde skyid pho brang"), named after the 7th Dalai Lama , Kelsang Gyatso (1708–1757). It is a three-storied palace with chambers for the worship of Buddha , bedrooms, reading rooms and shelters at the centre. The Khamsum Zilnon,

847-666: Is designed as a simple means for inputting Dzongkha text on computers. This keyboard layout was standardized by the Dzongkha Development Commission (DDC) and the Department of Information Technology (DIT) of the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2000. It was updated in 2009 to accommodate additional characters added to the Unicode & ISO 10646 standards since the initial version. Since

SECTION 10

#1732802157218

924-633: Is in the middle of the consonant and vowel, it is added as a subscript. On the other hand, when the ར /ra/ comes before the consonant and vowel, it is added as a superscript. ར /ra/ actually changes form when it is above most other consonants, thus རྐ rka. However, an exception to this is the cluster རྙ /ɲa/. Similarly, the consonants ར /ra/, and ཡ /ja/ change form when they are beneath other consonants, thus ཀྲ /ʈ ~ ʈʂa/; ཀྱ /ca/. Besides being written as subscripts and superscripts, some consonants can also be placed in prescript, postscript, or post-postscript positions. For instance,

1001-516: Is irrigated. There are 1,850,000 hectares (4,600,000 acres) of grasslands that may be used for pasturage, and 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of forest. The Lhasa River is the longest of the Yarlung Tsangpo tributaries. It flows through the south of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, and is a left tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo. It is about 450 kilometres (280 mi) long. The river forms where three smaller rivers converge. These are

1078-550: Is navigable from its mouth on the Yarlung Tsangpo up to the city of Lhasa and to altitudes of up to 2,650 metres (8,690 ft). Intensive melting of snow and glaciers starts in May, contributing 20–30% of the water. The bulk of the water is supplied by the summer monsoon rains, which fall from July to September. There are floods in the summer from July to September, with about 17% of the annual runoff flowing in September. In winter

1155-553: Is semi-arid monsoon, with a low average temperature of 1.2 to 7.5 °C (34.2 to 45.5 °F). Average annual precipitation is 466.3 millimetres (18.36 in), with 85% falling in the June–September period. Annual runoff is 10,550,000,000 cubic metres (3.73 × 10 cu ft). Water quality is good, with little discharge of sewage and minimal chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The basin has about 35,258 hectares (87,120 acres) of farmland, of which 17,710 hectares (43,800 acres)

1232-528: Is simply read as it usually is and has no effect on the pronunciation of the consonant to which it is subjoined, for example ཀ་ཝ་ཟུར་ཀྭ (IPA: /ka.wa.suː.ka/). The vowels used in the alphabet are ཨ /a/, ཨི /i/, ཨུ /u/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/. While the vowel /a/ is included in each consonant, the other vowels are indicated by marks; thus ཀ /ka/, ཀི /ki/, ཀུ /ku/, ཀེ /ke/, ཀོ /ko/. The vowels ཨི /i/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/ are placed above consonants as diacritics, while

1309-615: Is solely for the consonants ད /tʰa/ and ས /sa/. The head ( མགོ in Tibetan, Wylie: mgo ) letter, or superscript, position above a radical is reserved for the consonants ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ས /sa/. The subscript position under a radical can only be occupied by the consonants ཡ /ja/, ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ཝ /wa/. In this position they are described as བཏགས (Wylie: btags , IPA: /taʔ/), in Tibetan meaning "hung on/affixed/appended", for example བ་ཡ་བཏགས་བྱ (IPA: /pʰa.ja.taʔ.t͡ʃʰa/), except for ཝ , which

1386-685: Is the Tsokyil Phodrong, which is a pavilion in the midst of a lake and the Chensil Phodrong. On the west side of Norbulingka is the Golden Phodron, built by a benefactor in 1922, and a cluster of buildings which were built during the 13th Dalai Lama 's time. The 13th Dalai Lama was responsible for architectural modifications, including the large red doors to the palace; he also improved the Chensel Lingkha garden to

1463-411: The 7th Dalai Lama and served both as administrative centre and religious centre. It is a unique representation of Tibetan palace architecture. Norbulingka Palace is situated in the west side of Lhasa, a short distance to the southwest of Potala Palace. Norbulingka covers an area of around 36 hectares (89 acres) and considered to be the largest man-made garden in Tibet. Norbulingka park is considered

1540-532: The 7th Dalai Lama to cure his health problems. The Qing dynasty permitted the Dalai Lama to build a palace at this location for his stay, as a resting pavilion. Since subsequent Dalai Lamas also used to stay here for their studies (before enthronement) and as a summer resort, Norbulingka came to be known as the Summer Palace of the Dalai Lama. The 8th Dalai Lama was responsible for many additions to

1617-659: The Chinese calendar at the Norbulingka grounds with Tibetan music and dance under Government patronage. Tibetans also observe traditional holidays with Tibetan music and dance at this venue. During the reign of the Dalai Lamas (from the 7th Dalai Lama onwards), their annual shifting of residence from the Potala Palace to Norbulingka Palace was also an elaborate festive event. The Dalai Lama used to be escorted in

SECTION 20

#1732802157218

1694-898: The Latin script . Multiple Romanization and transliteration systems have been created in recent years, but do not fully represent the true phonetic sound. While the Wylie transliteration system is widely used to Romanize Standard Tibetan , others include the Library of Congress system and the IPA-based transliteration (Jacques 2012). Below is a table with Tibetan letters and different Romanization and transliteration system for each letter, listed below systems are: Wylie transliteration (W), Tibetan pinyin (TP), Dzongkha phonetic (DP), ALA-LC Romanization (A) and THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription (THL). The first version of Microsoft Windows to support

1771-527: The Pabonka Hermitage . This occurred c.  620 , towards the beginning of the king's reign. There were 21 Sutra texts held by the King which were afterward translated. In the first half of the 7th century, the Tibetan script was used for the codification of these sacred Buddhist texts, for written civil laws, and for a Tibetan Constitution. A contemporary academic suggests that the script

1848-570: The Potala Palace , winter palace of the Dalai Lama, the Jokhang Temple Monastery and the Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's former summer palace built in the 18th century considered a masterpiece of Tibetan art. The citation states: "preservation of vestiges of the traditional Tibetan architecture". This is viewed in the context of extensive modern development that has taken place under Chinese suzerainty in Tibet. The Chinese State Tourism Administration has also categorized Norbulingka at

1925-751: The Zhikong Hydro Power Station in Maizhokunggar County began in May 2003. The reservoir is at an elevation of 12,660 feet (3,860 m) above sea level. The project cost 1.37 billion yuan. The dam impounds 225,000,000 cubic metres (7.9 × 10 cu ft) of water. The 100 MW power station came into operation in September 2007. The Pondo Water-Control Project dammed the Lhasa River in Lhünzhub County . Work started in 2008, and progressed on schedule. It

2002-729: The 18th century, the Norbulingka Palace and the garden within its precincts have undergone several additions over the years. The vast complex covers a garden area of 3.6 km including 3.4 km of lush green pasture land covered with forests. It is said to be the “highest garden” anywhere in the world and has earned the epithet “Plateau Oxygen Bar.” The Norbulingka is the "world's highest, largest and best-preserved ancient artificial horticultural garden"., which also blends gardening with architecture and sculpture arts from several Tibetan ethnic groups; 30,000 cultural relics of ancient Tibetan history are preserved here. The complex

2079-568: The 1950s. Norbulingka Palace of the Dalai Lamas was built about 100 years after the Potala Palace was built on the Parkori peak, over a 36 hectares (89 acres) land area. It was built a little away to the west of the Potala for the exclusive use by the Dalai Lama to stay in during the summer months. Tenzin Gyatso , the present 14th Dalai Lama , stayed here before he fled to India . The building of

2156-719: The Central Government for restoration work; restoration work beginning in 2003 mainly covered the Kelsang Phodron Palace, the Kashak Cabinet offices and many other structures. Norbulingka was declared a "National Important Cultural Relic Unit”, in 1988 by the State council. On 14 December 2001, UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site as part of the "Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace". The historic ensemble covers three monuments namely,

2233-519: The Indian subcontinent state that the classical orthography should not be altered even when used for lay purposes. This became an obstacle for many modern Tibetic languages wishing to modernize or to introduce a written tradition. Amdo Tibetan was one of a few examples where Buddhist practitioners initiated a spelling reform. A spelling reform of the Ladakhi language was controversial in part because it

2310-422: The Lhasa River. The Liuwu Bridge was constructed across the Lhasa River to link central Lhasa to Lhasa railway station on the south bank. The 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) bridge was completed in 2007. In 2010 there was a small hydroelectric power station. Prior to 2011, waste water from Lhasa was discharged untreated into the river. A waste water treatment plant designed to process 50,000 tons of sewage per day

2387-548: The Norbulingka Park, is now a tourist attraction. The palace has a large collection of Italian chandeliers , Ajanta frescoes, Tibetan carpets, and many other artifacts. Murals of Buddha and the 5th Dalai Lama are seen in some rooms. The 14th Dalai Lama's (who fled from Tibet and took asylum in India) meditation room, bedroom, conference room and bathroom are part of the display and are explained to tourists. Built in

Lhasa River - Misplaced Pages Continue

2464-412: The Norbulingka complex in the form of palaces and gardens. However, it is sometimes reported that 6th through to 12th Dalai Lamas died young and under mysterious circumstances, conjectured as having been poisoned. Most of the credit for the expansion of Norbulingka is given to the 13th and the 14th Dalai Lamas. It was from the Norbulingka palace that the Dalai Lama escaped to India on 17 March 1959, under

2541-507: The Norbulingka from inundations by the Lhasa River, which was 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) wide after the monsoon. Harrer directed a work crew of 500 soldiers and 1,000 laborers paid by the government of Tibet. A fleet of 40 Yak skin boats were used to carry granite blocks extracted from a quarry upstream of the Norbulingka. Harrer mentions some difficulties. The Tibetans did not work as hard as westerners, and would stop to help worms when they found them. There were several hundred women working on

2618-509: The Norbulingka grounds; the first opera troupe was founded in the 15th century by Tangtong Gyelpo, considered the Leonardo da Vinci of Tibet. Over the centuries other opera formats of the 'White Masked Sect' and the "innovative" 'Black Masked Sect' added to the repertoire, and all these forms and subsequent innovations are enacted at the Sho Dun festival. The Chinese observe the holidays of

2695-730: The Phak Chu, the Phongdolha Chu which flows from Damxung County and the Reting Tsangpo , which rises beyond the Reting Monastery . The highest tributary rises at around 5,290 metres (17,360 ft) on the southern slope of the Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains . In its upper reaches the river flows southeast through a deep valley. Lower down the river valley is flatter and changes its direction to

2772-528: The Shodun or 'Yogurt Festival' at the beginning of August, with families camping in the grounds for days, surrounded by colorful makeshift windbreaks of rugs and scarves while enjoying the height of summer weather. There is also a zoo at Norbulingka, originally created to house the animals which were given to the Dalai Lamas . Heinrich Harrer helped the 14th Dalai Lama build a small movie theater there in

2849-732: The Tibetan keyboard layout is MS Windows Vista . The layout has been available in Linux since September 2007. In Ubuntu 12.04, one can install Tibetan language support through Dash / Language Support / Install/Remove Languages, the input method can be turned on from Dash / Keyboard Layout, adding Tibetan keyboard layout. The layout applies the similar layout as in Microsoft Windows. Mac OS -X introduced Tibetan Unicode support with OS-X version 10.5 and later, now with three different keyboard layouts available: Tibetan-Wylie, Tibetan QWERTY and Tibetan-Otani. The Dzongkha keyboard layout scheme

2926-410: The Tibetan script is that the consonants can be written either as radicals or they can be written in other forms, such as subscript and superscript forming consonant clusters . To understand how this works, one can look at the radical ཀ /ka/ and see what happens when it becomes ཀྲ /kra/ or རྐ /rka/ (pronounced /ka/). In both cases, the symbol for ཀ /ka/ is used, but when the ར /ra/

3003-401: The Tibetan script it is /a/. The letter ཨ is also the base for dependent vowel marks. Although some Tibetan dialects are tonal , the language had no tone at the time of the script's invention, and there are no dedicated symbols for tone. However, since tones developed from segmental features, they can usually be correctly predicted by the archaic spelling of Tibetan words. One aspect of

3080-509: The arrangement of keys essentially follows the usual order of the Dzongkha and Tibetan alphabet, the layout can be quickly learned by anyone familiar with this alphabet. Subjoined (combining) consonants are entered using the Shift key. The Dzongkha (dz) keyboard layout is included in Microsoft Windows, Android, and most distributions of Linux as part of XFree86 . Tibetan was originally one of

3157-407: The basic Tibetan alphabet to represent different sounds. In addition to the use of supplementary graphemes, the rules for constructing consonant clusters are amended, allowing any character to occupy the superscript or subscript position, negating the need for the prescript and postscript positions. Romanization and transliteration of the Tibetan script is the representation of the Tibetan script in

Lhasa River - Misplaced Pages Continue

3234-415: The c. 620 date of development of the original Tibetan script. Three orthographic standardisations were developed. The most important, an official orthography aimed to facilitate the translation of Buddhist scriptures emerged during the early 9th century. Standard orthography has not been altered since then, while the spoken language has changed by, for example, losing complex consonant clusters . As

3311-515: The city on horses to join his family for the trek to India”. The Chinese discovered this "great escape" only two days later. The party journeyed through the Himalayas for two weeks, and finally crossed the Indian border where they received political asylum. Norbulingka was later surrounded by protesters and subject to an attack by the Chinese. The summer residence of the Dalai Lama, located in

3388-430: The clear and cool water. The cool temperatures, with the upstream reaches above 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) freezing over at times, has the effect of delaying growth of fish such as Oxygymnocypris stewartii . The Tibetan plateau has thin air and clouds, which combined with the clear water gives strong illumination from a full moon. This may affect the fishes' circadian rhythm. In 2009 it was reported that fish caught in

3465-418: The consonants ག /kʰa/, ད /tʰa/, བ /pʰa/, མ /ma/ and འ /a/ can be used in the prescript position to the left of other radicals, while the position after a radical (the postscript position), can be held by the ten consonants ག /kʰa/, ན /na/, བ /pʰa/, ད /tʰa/, མ /ma/, འ /a/, ར /ra/, ང /ŋa/, ས /sa/, and ལ /la/. The third position, the post-postscript position

3542-472: The first floor of this building, there are 301 paintings (frescoes) on Tibetan history, dated to the time when Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama met Chairman Mao Zedong . As of 1986, the palace had an antique Russian radio, and a Philips console still containing old 78 rpm records. The entire Norbulingka complex was delimited by two sets of walls. The area encompassed by the inner wall, painted yellow,

3619-603: The first floor of this palace, the folk operas held opposite to the Khamsum Zilnon during the Shoton festival. Its fully restored throne room is also of interest." The Norbulingka ’s most dramatic area was the Lake Palace, built in the southwest area. In the centre of the lake, three islands were connected to the land by short bridges. A palace was built on each island. A horse stable and a row of four houses contained

3696-644: The first seven days of the Full Moon period, which corresponds to dates in July/August according to the Gregorian calendar . The week-long festivities are marked by eating and drinking, with Ache Lhamo , the Tibetan opera performances as the highlight, held in the park and other venues in the city. On this occasion yak races are a special attraction held in the Lhasa stadium. During this festival, famed Opera troupes from different regions of Tibet perform at

3773-565: The floods. In its lower reaches the river valley is an important agricultural area. The city of Lhasa lies on the river. There are two large hydroelectric power stations on the river, the Zhikong Hydro Power Station (100 MW) and the Pangduo Hydro Power Station (160 MW) The Lhasa River drains an area of 32,471 square kilometres (12,537 sq mi), and is the largest tributary of

3850-505: The fruits did not ripen in Lhasa), and also poplar trees and bamboo . In its heyday, the Norbulingka grounds were also home to wildlife in the form of peacocks and brahminy ducks in the lakes. The park was so large and well-laid-out, that cycling around the area was even permitted to enjoy the beauty of the environment. The gardens are a favorite picnic spot, and provide for a beautiful venue for theater, dancing and festivals, particularly

3927-470: The gifts received by the Dalai Lamas from the Chinese emperors and other foreign dignitaries. Construction of the 'New Palace' was begun in 1954 by the present Dalai Lama, and completed in 1956. It is a double-story structure with a Tibetan flat roof. It has an elaborate layout with a maze of rooms and halls. This modern complex contains chapels, gardens, fountains and pools. It is a modern Tibetan-style building embellished with ornamentation and facilities. In

SECTION 50

#1732802157218

4004-536: The guard dogs that patrolled the perimeter of the Norbulingka. On the east gate to the Norbulingka there are two Snow Lion statues covered in khatas (thin white scarves offered as a mark of respect), the Snow Lion on the left is accompanied by a lion cub. The mythical Snow Lion is the symbol of Tibet; according to legend they jump from one snow peak to another. Most of the buildings are closed now; have become storehouses or used as offices for those who take care of

4081-523: The lower reaches of the river had been decreasing slightly in size, probably due to increasing demand and construction of hydroelectric dams. The river valley is one of the main agricultural areas of Tibet. The city of Lhasa lies on its shore, and there are many Buddhist monasteries in the valley. Riwo Ganden Nampar Gyelpé Ling, the first fortress of the Gelukpa sect, was built on the left bank in 1409, about 35 miles (56 km) upstream from Lhasa. In 1416

4158-638: The maintenance works. Some additional buildings seen now are souvenir kiosks catering to the visitors. During the Cultural Revolution, the Norbulingka complex suffered extensive damage. However, in 2001, the Central Committee of the Chinese Government in its 4th Tibet Session resolved to restore the complex to its original glory. Grant funds to the extent of 67.4 million Yuan (US$ 8.14 million) were sanctioned in 2002 by

4235-473: The middle section of the Yaluzangbu River . The average altitude of the basin is around 4,500 metres (14,800 ft). The basin has complex geology and is tectonically active. Earthquakes are common. The river basin is the center of Tibet politically, economically and culturally. As of 1990 the population was 329,700, of whom 208,700 were farmers. 88% of the people were ethnic Tibetans. The climate

4312-570: The monastery of Chödra Chenpo Penden Drepung was built on the right bank near to the Neudzong fortress. The ruins of the Sne'u rdzong fortress are on the left bank of the river, opposite the Norbulingka summer palace of the Dalai Lamas in Lhasa. The climate in the central river valleys of Tibet is comparatively mild. They are warm in summer, and even in the coldest months of winter the temperature

4389-402: The multilingual ʼPhags-pa script , and is also closely related to Meitei . According to Tibetan historiography, the Tibetan script was developed during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo by his minister Thonmi Sambhota , who was sent to India with 16 other students to study Buddhism along with Sanskrit and written languages. They developed the Tibetan script from the Gupta script while at

4466-682: The northwest. To the north of Tsokyil Phodrong is the Takten Migyur Phodrong which was built in 1954 by 14th Dalai Lama and is the most elegant palace in the complex, a fusion of a temple and villa. The new summer palace, which faces south, was built with Central Government funds, and completed in 1956. The earliest building is the Kelsang Palace built by the Seventh Dalai Lama which is "a beautiful example of Yellow Hat architecture. Dalai Lamas watched, from

4543-480: The palace and the park was undertaken by the 7th Dalai Lama from 1755. The Norbulingka Park and Summer Palace were completed in 1783 under Jampel Gyatso, the 8th Dalai Lama, on the outskirts of Lhasa. and became the summer residence during the reign of the Eighth Dalai Lama . The earliest history of Norbulingka is traced originally to a spring at this location, which was used during the summer months by

4620-444: The palace was started (during the 7th Dalai Lama's period) in the 1740s, the site was a barren land, overgrown with weeds and scrub and infested with wild animals. The park, situated at an elevation of 3,650 metres (11,980 ft) had flower gardens of roses , petunias , hollyhocks , marigolds , chrysanthemums and rows of herbs in pots and rare plants. Fruit trees including apple , peach and apricot were also reported (but

4697-406: The park was banned. Guards at the gate offered a formal arms salute to the nobles and high-ranking officials. Even the officials at the lower category also received a salute. The gates outside the yellow wall were heavily protected. Only the Dalai Lama and his guardians could pass through these gates. Tibetan mastiff dogs kept in niches of the compound walls, and tied with long yak hair leashes, were

SECTION 60

#1732802157218

4774-432: The premier park of all such horticultural parks in similar ethnic settings in Tibet. During the summer and autumn months, the parks in Tibet, including the Norbulingka, become hubs of entertainment with dancing, singing, music and festivities. The park is where the annual Sho Dun or 'Yoghurt Festival' is held. The Norbulingka palace has been mostly identified with the 13th and the 14th Dalai Lamas who commissioned most of

4851-610: The right tributary of the Lhasa River, the Ti, which enters the river a few miles below Lhasa, was crossed by a very large and imposing bridge over a hundred yards long, with masonry piers and substantial stone embankments. McGovern also described the Yutok-sampa, or Turquoise Bridge, a structure with walls and a roof that crossed what had been the main Lhasa River but was now a stagnant canal. As late as 1984 kowas , yak hide boats similar to coracles, were being used to ferry passengers across

4928-415: The river has low water, and sometimes freezes. Total flow is about 4 cubic kilometres (0.96 cu mi), with average flow about 125 cubic metres per second (4,400 cu ft/s). The Lhasa River has mean monthly water temperatures that range from about 1 to 14 °C (34 to 57 °F). Average water temperatures are 7.5 °C (45.5 °F). There are abundant species of fish that are adapted to

5005-583: The river stream was completed in October 2011. The project was due to start operating its first generator in October 2013. The project involved a total investment of 4.569 billion yuan, or about 0.74 billion US dollars, and has been called the "Tibetan Three Gorges". It was built as part of the Western Development Strategy. The dam also supports flood prevention and water supply. Tibetan script The Tibetan script has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali , Nepali and Old Turkic . The printed form

5082-684: The scripts in the first version of the Unicode Standard in 1991, in the Unicode block U+1000–U+104F. However, in 1993, in version 1.1, it was removed (the code points it took up would later be used for the Burmese script in version 3.0). The Tibetan script was re-added in July, 1996 with the release of version 2.0. The Unicode block for Tibetan is U+0F00–U+0FFF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks and special symbols used in religious texts: Norbulingka Norbulingka ( Standard Tibetan : ནོར་བུ་གླིང་ག ; Wylie : Nor bu gling ga ; simplified Chinese : 罗布林卡 ; traditional Chinese : 羅布林卡 ; literally "Jeweled Park")

5159-431: The site. The soldiers did not fail to make jokes with them, to which they responded promptly. The site was often visited by members of the Tibetan government, who would give out silk scarves, and rewards were distributed to the workers. The total hydropower potential of the river basin is 2,560,000 kW. 83 medium and small hydroelectric plants had been built by 1989, delivering a total of 26,124 kW. Construction of

5236-405: The southwest, The river expands to a width of 150 to 200 metres (490 to 660 ft). Major tributaries in the lower reaches include the Pengbo River and the Duilong River . At its mouth the Lhasa Valley is about 3 miles (4.8 km) wide. It enters the Tsangpo at a point where that river makes a sharp turn to the south, and which therefore seems to be a continuation of the Lhasa River. The river

5313-404: The strong belief that he would be captured by the Chinese. On this day, the Dalai Lama dressed like an ordinary Tibetan, and, carrying a rifle across his shoulder, left the Norbulinga palace and Tibet to seek asylum in India. As there was a dust storm blowing at that time, he was not recognized. According to Reuters, “The Dalai Lama and his officials, who had also escaped from the palace, rode out of

5390-451: The structures that still stand today. During the invasion of Tibet in 1950, a number of buildings were damaged, but were rebuilt beginning in 2003, when the Chinese government initiated renovation works here to restore some of the damaged structures, and also the greenery, the flower gardens and the lakes. In Tibetan , Norbulingka means 'Jewel(ed) Garden.' or 'Jewel(ed) Park'. The word lingka ( Tibetan : གླིང་ག , Wylie : gling ga )

5467-457: The vowel ཨུ /u/ is placed underneath consonants. Old Tibetan included a reversed form of the mark for /i/, the gigu 'verso', of uncertain meaning. There is no distinction between long and short vowels in written Tibetan, except in loanwords , especially transcribed from the Sanskrit . The Tibetan alphabet, when used to write other languages such as Balti , Chinese and Sanskrit , often has additional and/or modified graphemes taken from

5544-521: The water display the richest emerald-green pasturage. Groves of poplar and willow, in shapely clumps, combine with the grassy stretches to give in places a parklike appearance to the scene. Several hamlets and villages, such as Cheri, Daru, and Shing Dongkhar, are dotted over these lands. A fertile plain truly for a besieging army! William Montgomery McGovern wrote in To Lhasa in Disguise (1924) that

5621-582: The western dialects of the Ladakhi language , as well as the Balti language , come very close to the Old Tibetan spellings. Despite that, the grammar of these dialectical varieties has considerably changed. To write the modern varieties according to the orthography and grammar of Classical Tibetan would be similar to writing Italian according to Latin orthography, or to writing Hindi according to Sanskrit orthogrophy. However, modern Buddhist practitioners in

5698-574: Was commissioned in July 2011. Before the Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China , the agricultural engineer Peter Aufschnaiter designed a dam on the Lhasa River to protect the palace of Norbulingka in the city of Lhasa from flooding, with a water supply canal to the city. Heinrich Harrer monitored the work. In 1948 Heinrich Harrer had to intervene to reinforce a dyke that protected

5775-479: Was exclusively for the use of the Dalai Lama and his attendants. Officials and the Dalai Lama's royal family lived in the area between the inner yellow wall and the outer wall. A dress code was followed for visitors to enter the palace; those wearing Tibetan dress were allowed; guards posted at the gates controlled the entry, and ensured that no western hat-wearing people (which was made popular in Tibet during Lhamdo Dhondups time) were allowed inside. Wearing shoes inside

5852-467: Was first initiated by Christian missionaries. In the Tibetan script, the syllables are written from left to right. Syllables are separated by a tsek (་); since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as a space. Spaces are not used to divide words. The Tibetan alphabet has thirty basic letters, sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants. As in other Indic scripts , each consonant letter assumes an inherent vowel ; in

5929-428: Was instead developed in the second half of the 11th century. New research and writings also suggest that there were one or more Tibetan scripts in use prior to the introduction of the script by Songtsen Gampo and Thonmi Sambhota . The incomplete Dunhuang manuscripts are their key evidence for their hypothesis, while the few discovered and recorded Old Tibetan Annals manuscripts date from 650 and therefore post-date

#217782