Rock Pillar in Mid-River

Rock Pillar in Mid-River – Brief Introduction

The Rock Pillar in Mid-River is at the place 15 kilometers away from west of Jiangda County, Kongpo District, Nyingchi Prefecture in Tibet. According to legends, it is the seat where Goddess "Gongzun Demu" practiced. It is regarded as holy thing by local women. On auspicious days, local people will burn incense and sacrifice to pray for safety and good fortune for all living creatures. Especially, during the Goddess Festival of "Gongzun Demu", from January 1st to January 5th, women of Kongpo District come there to worship and hold sacrifice activity from all sides. The sacrifice activity only can be took part in by women.

Who is "Gongzun Demu"? Why women in Kongpo regard her as goddess? How the Rock Pillar in Mid-River became her throne? There is a legend about these questions.

Rock Pillar in Mid-River – Legend

According to legends, there was a water sprite ever made trouble at the bend of Yarlung Zanpo River. People of Kongpo District were suffered from flood, pestilence and famine. There is a girl named Gongzun Demu in Kongpo District. She was beautiful, smart and kind-hearted. She believed in Buddhism and determined to learn magical arts through hard work to protect kind people in Kongpo District.

In order to practice magical arts, Gongzun Demu built a palace at Namjagbarwa Peak. They, she toured to Nagqu, Ngari and other prefectures of Tibet alone. After several years' search, she found the grand canyon of Niyang River is the most spiritual place. Then, she used magical arts to move a giant stone into the river and regarded it as her throne. Since then, she practiced on the giant rock in Niyang River and experienced sunshine, rainfall and surging flow.

Evil spirits in Niyang River worried that the Gongzun Demu will do bad things to them after becoming immortal. So they tried to disturb her practice. They used magical arts to assemble giant rocks and threw toward Gongzun Demu; they changed to fierce animals to leap up at Gongzun Demu; they also courted pestilence to harm the body of Gongzun Demu. But all of these problems were solved by Gongzun Demu. In this way, Gongzun Demu knocked over every difficulty and practiced for 999 years. But she did not succeed. She did not lose heart and keep going. On the last day of the 1000th year, the Buddha Sakyamuni was moved by her sincerity and strong will. Then, Sakyamuni came to the holy mountain near Gongzun Demu, chanted scriptures for her and help her to be immortal. At the moment when Sakyamuni will complete chanting scripture, Gongzun Demu became immortal.

After became immortal, Gongzun Demu found that evil spirits in Niyang River was still making trouble and he left her throne in the Niyang River to suppress these evil spirits. The throne of Gongzun Demu is present "Rock Pillar in Mid-River". At the same time, Gongzun Demu also stuck her sword which formed a giant rock in the shape of sword at the mountain top to frighten evil spirits and fierce animals. That's the legend about Rock Pillar in Mid-River.