New Year Blessings from Purang: Kailash and the Holy Lakes
The photograph titled "Mt. Kailash and Two Holy Lakes Pilgrimage Panorama" was captured by Guge Zirenjabu and is held in the collection of monasteries in the Ali region. In the eastern part of Purang County, C. Kalantari photographed "The Ali Purang Bodhisattva Statue." Dating back to the Tubo period, a statue in Xide Village, Purang County was erected in either 826 or 838; this piece, known as the "Ali Purang Buddha Statue," was photographed by C. Kalantari. The close-up view of the face comes from a series of images taken in 2007, which includes this particular shot.
Jahoda (2007) suggests that the statue's construction likely occurred around the same period as the Purang Buddha Statue mentioned previously, with a timeframe of either the first half or the later part of the 9th century. The statue's principal subject remains unidentified.
Above the entrance to the Songzeng Hall of Akisong Temple, a 13th-century image shows Dzogchenma (རྡོ་རྗེ་ཆེན་མོ་) as the female protector, serving as the personal protector of the great translator Lotsawa Rinchen Sangpo (958–1055). This representation appears as a detail in a mid-15th-century piece from a private collection titled "Vajrasattva and Vajrapani, Sources of Supreme Power and Fearless Wisdom," which also features a Western Tibetan layperson and a monk in elaborate attire as patrons. Dzogchenma is venerated across the entire Western Tibetan region. Separately, the following
In the Tibetan calendar, the first day of the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and first months respectively marks the start of the four traditional Tibetan New Year celebrations: the Gongbu New Year in Nyingchi area, the Purang New Year in Ali Prefecture, the Agricultural New Year in rural areas, and the King’s New Year observed across Tibet.
In Tibet, certain areas observe their own distinct New Year celebrations—the Dzam Lingpa Festival in the Gar Region being one such example. The origin legends behind each of these New Year traditions are shaped by the area's particular natural environment and climate. A widely held view is that the Tubo period saw two significant assemblies of rulers, officials, and the populace: a summer gathering centered on the prosperity of farming and herding along with seasonal sacrifices, and a winter gathering focused on general well-being and winter offerings.
In the present day, events such as the Horse Racing Festival are tied to the former, whereas the Agricultural New Year and the King's New Year are connected to the latter. Regarding their origins, the Gongbu New Year in Nyingchi and the Purang New Year in Ali Prefecture follow a comparable narrative pattern, featuring festivities that precede sudden military clashes. The caption "Wooden sutra board found in Purang County" was captured by Guge Tsering Japu in the late 14th century.
Common clothing styles in western Tibetan areas may be grouped into twelve distinct types," an observation attributed to photographer Guge Cirenjabu in the work *"Wearing Elaborate Attire Women from the Ali Region."* Variations emerge both in how garments are assembled and in the design of accessories, with notable distinctions across each category.
From the 2023 edition of "Eight Major Tibetan Operas: The Prince of Norsang", issued by People's Publishing House of Tibet, this selection is titled "The Prince of Norsang and Yungdrung". Within the currently accepted grouping of the "Eight Great Tibetan Operas", the common understanding holds that, aside from "Nang Sa Wo Bong" and "Han Fei Ni Fei", the source texts for the other six operas do not stem from actual occurrences. Rather, they are taken from revelation literature originating in South Asia and the Himalayan region, with particular emphasis on "The Story of Rgyalpo of sTag-lun".
Even though the origin narrative of the Ali Purang New Year features Prince Nosang and is linked to the main character of the opera "Prince Nosang", its underlying meaning could reach beyond the written text into the depths of history. In academic circles, whether the source of "Zhuo Wa Sangmu" in the other six Tibetan operas is authentic remains an open question.
Encircled by snowy mountains, the peacock holy land of Purang (སྤུ་ཧྲེང་/སྤུ་རངས་) is home to the revered Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar as well as cultural landscapes like Khojag Monastery (འཁོར་ཆགས་དགོན་) and the ancient palace grotto temples (དགུང་འཕུར་ལྷ་ཁང་/སྐུ་ཚེ་དགོན་).
The traditional folklore of Purang identifies the ancient palace grotto temples as the sites where Princess Un Chor Lam carried out her practices and achieved ascension. In addition, countless rock-hewn structures and mountain-lake formations across Purang are linked to the story of Prince Nosang. This kind of literary portrayal, which goes beyond documented history, conveys the particular memories and narratives that the people of the Ali region hold regarding their own past.
The historical lineage of the Purang Kingdom, one of the initial three kingdoms, extends continuously, with deep ties to the ancient Guge Kingdom. It long existed as a relatively independent territory under Guge's dominion, later governed autonomously and gave rise to vassal states, until its eventual demise in the course of Western Tibetan history.
Whether this shift in the New Year celebration originated during the "period of prince's rule" under Guge governance, in a resistance war against foreign forces after the Purang Kingdom achieved complete independence, or in the "Ladakh War" led by Ganden Tashi Wang during the 17th century—its precise actions cannot be definitively ascertained.
The descendants of Prince Nosang are regarded with pride by the inhabitants of Purang and Zanda, who consider themselves inheritors of Western Tibet's storied past. It is conceivable that the prince narratives brought over from South Asia, particularly Kashmir, have shaped their tendency to connect these figures with the distinguished sovereigns of their own history.
The temples and monasteries remain intact, and the region continues to flourish. Doesn't the assessment made by the Fifth Awan Lozang Jigme of Prince Nosang—"The prosperity of the northern land is all due to the benevolent teachings and good governance of the kings"—serve as a sufficient reminder of those royal descendants already documented in the history books of later Ali?
From the Rubin Museum's collection, this 17th-century painting, titled "The Four Harmonious Friends," depicts a classic Buddhist narrative in which a partridge, a hare, a monkey, and an elephant join forces to safeguard a fruit-bearing tree. Wishing you a joyous Purang New Year: པུ་ལན་དུ་ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ།