Princess Wencheng

Princess Wencheng was a lady of the imperial family in the Tang Dynasty. She became a famous historical figure of China for her marrying the chief of Tubo (namely the Zang ethnic minority now) and bringing with her the advanced culture of Han nationality, thus promoting the unity and integration between different ethnic groups. In China’s history, the emperor would marry his own daughter or unmarried daughters of the imperial members to the chiefs of minorities in the boarder areas. It is called “He Fan“. Princess Wencheng is the first princess of peace-making marriage in the Tang Dynasty.

Princess Wencheng was conferred by Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty in 641 A.D, who married her to Songtsan Gambo, the chief of Tubo Kingdom (part of Tibet now). According to the books such as A Hereditary Inspection of Tubo Kingdom, when Princess Wencheng went to Tibet, there was a great number of accompanying soldiers and an abundance of trousseau which included the statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, treasures, bookcases made of gold and jade, 360 volumes of classic sutras, as well as various gold and jade ornaments. Apart from that, there were also the food, plant seeds, medical books, and books of Chinese traditional medicine and architectures. Songtsan Gambo, chief of Tubo, was very glad about that and ordered his ministers and the aristocrat descendents to be students of Princess Wencheng’ accompanying intellectuals to learn the culture of Han and to do reading and research on the poems. Later he sent one passel after another of aristocrat descendents to go thousands of miles for Chang’an of the Tang to learn and bring the Han culture back to Tubo.

At the first year of Yonghui (650 A.D.), after Songtsan Gambo passed away, Princess Wencheng still lived in Tibet for the rest of her life. She greatly loved the Tibetans and was in turn deeply loved by the people. She designed and assisted in building Jokhang Temple and Ramoche Temple. Under her influence, craftworks such as milling, spinning, pottery making, papermaking and brewing were transmitted to Tubo in succession. And classics such as poems, books about farming, sutra, historical and medical books as well as the calendrical system brought by her promoted the development of Tubo’s economy and culture and strengthened the ties between the Han and the Tibetans. All the Tubo people regarded Princess Wencheng as their deity.