page_title: Princess Wencheng
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Princess Wencheng / Chinese accounts of Princess Wencheng / Life
caption_attribution_description: The Jokhang Temple in Tibet.
context_page_description: Princess Wencheng is an ancient historical figure who holds great significance in China proper and Tibet. Regardless of her true historical significance, she is a part of the greater Sinicization phenomenon and has now been transformed into a political tool used to justify the Sinicization of Tibet.
  According to Chinese history, Princess Wencheng, surnamed Li, was a member of a minor branch of the royal clan of the Tang Dynasty. She allegedly married King Songtsen Gampo of the Tibetan Empire in 641. She is also known by the name Gyasa or "Chinese wife" in Tibet. Some Tibetan historians consider both Princess Wencheng and Bhrikuti to be physical manifestations of the bodhisattva Tara.
context_section_description: According to Chinese accounts, in the spring of 634 on an official state visit to Imperial China, Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo fell in love at first sight and had relentlessly pursued the princess hand by sending envoys and tributes but was refused.
  Allegedly, in 635/636, Royal Tibetan forces were deployed, attacking and defeating the peoples of  Tuyuhun who strategically lived near the Lake of Koko Nor in present-day Qinghai, impeding a trade route into Imperial China. News of Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo's attack on Songzhou quickly spread from the ground to the Royal Courtiers, and Emperor Taizhou despatched his Militia and defeated Songtsen Gampo's army, causing Songtsen Gampo’s retreat. He then sent a written expressed apology to the Tang Emperor. The Tang Emperor upon seeing Songtsen Gampo’s sincerity, then agreed to marry the princess to the Tibetan king.
caption: Wencheng's and Bhrikuti's legacy—Jokhang in Lhasa—founded to house statues of the Buddha which each bride brought with her dowry.
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