The Treasury of Lives



Gyaza Kongjo (rgya bza' kong jo) was born between the year 623 and 631, probably in or near the Tang Dynasty capital Chang'an (長安, modern-day Xi'an 西安). Her name in Chinese was Wencheng Gongzhu (文成公主), "gongzhu" meaning "princess" or "noblewoman." That title is rendered in Tibetan as Kongjo (kong jo), while the "Gyaza" in her Tibetan name means "Chinese wife." Her family name was Li (李), and she was possibly a daughter of Li Daozong (李道宗, circa 603-656), a military officer and cousin to the Chinese Emperor Taizong (太宗598-649).

At a young age, possibly ten, twelve or sixteen, she was sent to Tibet as a bride for either the son of King Songtsen Gampo (srong btsan sgam po, circa 617-650) or for the king himself. The marriage appears to have been made in the wake of Tibetan and Chinese military clashes in Amdo between 635 and 636, and the negotiation was undertaken by the Tibetan minister Gar Tongtsen (mgar stong btsan, d. 667). If indeed she was intended for the prince, he died before she arrived, and Songtsen Gampo took her as a wife. In some narratives the king met her in Amdo with great ceremony. He had previously accepted (or demanded) a Nepali wife, the Liccavi princess Bhṛkutī (bal bza' khri btsun). The year of Wencheng's arrival in Lhasa is recorded in a Tibetan stele as 641.

Wencheng appears to have brought a small retinue of Chinese attendants with her, including artists and ritual masters, who may or may not have influenced Tibetan society. She did not give birth to any children, and died in 680, possibly of smallpox. Her death was acknowledged by the Tang court.

Tibetan folklore has made much of Wencheng's place in the initial spread of Buddhism in Tibet. She is credited with bringing with her the beloved Jowo Śākyamuni statue now housed in the Lhasa Jokhang (jo khang). Wencheng initially built the Ramoche Temple (ra mo che) for her statue, but brought the Jowo to Jokhang later and installed it in the central temple. A statue Bhṛkutī brought from Nepal was then placed in Ramoche.



Songtsen Gampo is known to have constructed a series of temples across the Tibetan Plateau, which were evidently an expression of his kingship–they are laid out in concentric squares much like the royal geography of imperial China. Tibetan legend holds that Wencheng's journey to Lhasa was plagued by multiple hardships. After her arrival she used Chinese divination to discover that the Tibetan landscape, personified as a great demoness (srin mo) laying on her back, had attempted to block her from bringing Buddhism to Tibet. In this legend Wencheng commissioned the temples in order to subjugate that demoness by pinning her down at key points of her body.

Local legends abound regarding her journey to Tibet. For example, carvings and inscriptions at Denma Drak (ldan ma brag), in Kham, are said to honor her layover there. Another legend has it that the ancient statue of the Buddha in Lhagang (lha sgang), Kham, is said to have also been carried with her from Chang'an but, on reaching that beautiful valley, requested to remain behind. Yet another tells of Wencheng and the minister Gar having a love affair and Wencheng becoming pregnant. Various versions of this legend has her miscarrying the fruit of their liaison, suffering a stillborn, or giving birth to a child and setting it adrift on a river. The Bakha Tulku (sba kha sprul sku) of Bakha Monastery (sba kha dgon) in Amdo claims to be the rebirth of that child.

Wencheng was eventually apotheosized by the Buddhist communities as an incarnation of White Tārā, while Bhṛkutī became a manifestation of Green Tārā, and Songtsen Gampo became Avalokiteśvara.

In contemporary Chinese popular culture, greatly expanding earlier imperial-era legends, Wencheng has been transformed into key agent of Chinese acculturation of Tibet, and she features in multiple video and print material promoting a government-endorsed vision of Chinese-Tibetan unity.


Learn more about the Women Initiative, an effort to add 100 new biographies of women by 2026.

Alexander Gardner is Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007. He is the author of The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul The Great.

Published January 2019

Images

The Demoness of Tibet

The Demoness of Tibet is a close copy of a well-known image located in the Tibet Museum in Lhasa. The landscape of Tibet is shown as the mythical demoness of Tibetan legend. Important Buddhist temples and monasteries are located across her body, spanning from the Ngari region in the west to Kham in the east. 

དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་ཆ་ཁག།

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གང་ཟག་འདིའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་ཁག་བོད་ཀྱི་ནང་བསྟན་དཔེ་ཚོགས་ལྟེ་གནས་སུ་འཚོལ།