Chushul Chakzam

Chushul Chakzam ཆུ་ཤུལ་ལྕགས་ཟམ
File:Old Chain-Bridge at Chaksam.jpg Old Chain-Bridge at Chaksam.
Coordinates
Crosses	Yarlung Tsangpo
Locale	Qüxü County, Lhasa Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region
Characteristics
Design	Suspension bridge
Material	Iron suspension
Trough construction	Plank footway
Pier construction	Stone piers
Total length	150 yards (140 m)
Width	30 centimetres (12 in)
Height	15 feet (4.6 m)
History
Designer	Thang Tong Gyalpo
Opened	1430 (1430)
Closed	1950s
Replaced by	Qushui Yaluzangbujiang Bridge
Location

Chushul Chakzam
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ཆུ་ཤུལ་ལྕགས་ཟམ
Transcriptions Wylie chu shul lcags zam THL chu shül chak zam

Chaksam Chuwori
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ལྕགས་ཟམ་ཆུ་བོ་རི
Transcriptions Wylie lcags zam chu bo ri THL chak zam chuwo ri

The Chushul Chakzam (Tibetan: ཆུ་ཤུལ་ལྕགས་ཟམ), or simply Chakzam which literally means "iron bridge" in Standard Tibetan, was a suspension bridge that spanned the Yarlung Tsangpo river in modern-day Qüxü County near Lhasa, Tibet. It was built in 1430 by Thang Tong Gyalpo. The southern bridgehead was built on the mountain Chowuri, which is sacred in Tibetan Buddhism. This mountain was a site where Guru Rinpoche and Trisong Detsen had meditated during the 8th Century. When it was built, its main section was the longest unsupported span in the world, with a central span estimated at around 150 yards (140 metres).

In 1444, a monastery Chaksam Chuwori (Tibetan: ལྕགས་ཟམ་ཆུ་བོ་རི) was founded on the southern bridgehead. During its existence, the monastery served as the seat of Chakzampa school of Tibetan Buddhism. Supported by the bridge toll, the monastery at one point hosted about 100 monks. The monastery was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.

History

By the 1860s, the bridge was in a state of disrepair that a ferry was in operation slightly upstream offering safer passage. By 1904, the river had overflown the north bank leaving the northern bridgehead on an island, thus rendering the bridge functionally ineffective. The ferryman mostly came from a nearby village of Chun or Junba, which is the only fishing village in Tibet. The ferry service continued as late as 1959.

During the Qing expedition to Tibet of 1910, the 13th Dalai Lama decided to seek refuge in India. His general Tsarong fought a skirmish against the Chinese here, holding their advances allowing the Dalai Lama to safely arrive in India.

The bridge was torn down by the Chinese government in the 1950s when they were building the concrete bridge in its place. The new concrete bridge Qushui Yaluzangbujiang Bridge opened on August 1, 1966.

• 
  Chaksam ferry as depicted in this map from mid-1800s showing an iron chain bridge, a horse head ferry, and a yak-hide boat.
• 
  Diagram by an Indian spy working for the Survey of India in 1878
• 
  Chakzam Ferry as photoed by Ernst Schäfer in 1938
• Error creating thumbnail:
  Qushui Yaluzangbujiang Bridge, the concrete bridge built by PRC replacing the Chushul Chakzam.
• Error creating thumbnail:
  Ferry crossing in the 1930s
• Error creating thumbnail:
  Modern recreational ferry

See also

• List of bridges in China

External links

• lcags zam chu bo ri - Buddhist Digital Resource Center