Kumbum In The Eyes Of The Travelers

Kumbum Monastery is one of the greatest monasteries of Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. It was founded in1379, and it was also the birth place of Master Tsongkhapa---the founder of Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism.After "the September18Incident" in1931, more and more travelers paid their attentions on Kumbum Monastery. Such as Zhou Xi-wu, Ma He-tian, Zhang Da-qian etc. Kumbum Monastery, which located in the northwest, attracted approximately40officials, scholars and artists.These travel writings about Kumbum Monastery, in some degree, represented and affected Chinese people to understand the Tibetans and the Tibetan culture.This thesis, which is divided into four chapters, analyzes and elaborates the background and process of the Han travelers who went into the Kumbum Monastery from the19th century to the mid20th century. The study also describes the life of Han travelers, the background that they examined Kumbum Monastery and what they saw and heard in Kumbum Monastery in detail. Finally, the research analyzes the ethnographic significance of Han travelers’investigation in Kumbum Monastery.