The Treasury of Lives

The former Lhasa home of the aristocratic Tsarong family. Originally from Sakya, this is the family that claims descent from Yutok Yonten Gonpo. It was Tsarong Dasang Damdul, who was to become the Commander in Chief of the Tibetan army, who married into the Tsarong family and built it into one of the great trading families of Tibet. With the family's fortunes restored, Dasang Damdul  had the new Tsarong house built in the years 1923-1926. He sold the old Tsarong house in the Jokhang area to the Pangdatsang family, after which it became known as the Pangdatsang House. The new Tsarong house was a two storey, rectangular building of thirty-six rooms on a piece of land measuring fifteen acres on the outskirts of Lhasa city near the Kyichu river. The house was spacious and well built with modern aesthetics and amenities, including windows with glass panes which were new in Lhasa at the time. Austrians Peter Aufschnaiter and Heinrich Harrer stayed at Tsarong Manor House when they lived in Lhasa.

Originally from Sakya, the aristocratic Tsarong family claims descent from the famous medical master Yutok Yonten Gonpo. In the early 1910s, Tsarong Dasang Damdul, would become the Commander in Chief of the Tibetan army, married into the Tsarong family and built it into one of the great trading families of Tibet.

Dasang Damdul Tsarong and his wife Pema Dolkar during Losar, 1937.