This article mainly discussed about the historical transition on the sacredness of Lhasa in Inner Asian Buddhism World. Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet in modern time, is located in the Kyi River Valley of U province, the central Tibet. The meaning of the Lhasa is the Holy land, but during the Tibetan empire(7～9 centuries) it had been called Ra sa meant the land of Goat.
It is not clear when it had been changed to call Ra sa to Lhasa. At least during the Dalai LamaⅤ, Lhasa had been settled down as the name of the capital city, the center of political power of Tibet. So to understand the backgrounds of this change my research focuses on different roles of the city Lhasa from the Tibetan empire to the Geluk School period.
During the ancient Tibetan Empire(Tu-bo, tib. Bo chen po), Ra sa was not the capital city as the political center. The Tibetan Government of btsan po, the king of Tibet, mainly managed in nomadic life, so they didn’t construct the fixed dwelling settlements. In the beginning there’s no city in Lhasa, but Songtsen gampo, the founder of the empire, just established the jo khang(gtsug lag khang) temple in 639, the first buddhist temple in Tibet, for his Nepali empress khri btsun(Bhrikuti). From this point, Lhasa got the potentiality for being the religious center in Tibet.
The dramatic transition happened during the Geluk School period. Tsongkapa(1357～1419), the founder of the Geluk School, founded the smon lam chen mo in 1409, known as the Great Prayer Day as part of New Year celebrations in Tibet. The smon lam chen mo originated from the era of Buddha Sakyamuni was reintroduced by Tsongkapa. The biggest patron of the Tsongkapa, Phagmodru dynasty tired to restore the political authority from the ancient Tibetan Empire. So first Phagmodru dynasty sponsored Tsongkapa to restore the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa built by King Songtsen gampo during the 7<SUP>th</SUP> century.
During the 17<SUP>th</SUP> century the struggles for the reunited Mongol nation in Inner Asia grew fiercer, Dalai lama got the condition to be able to make himself as an arbitrator in Inner Asia. Under this situation, every prominent political figure in Inner Asia rushed to Lhasa for participating into the New Year festival smon lam chen mo as a patron, where had chance to make connection with the Geluk School. In that context Lhasa emerged as the political-religious center in Inner Asian buddhism world.