
Seal of vBri-gung Wanhu Office,
Yuan Dynasty,copper seal with a straight knob, 9.7
cm high, each side: 8.2 cm
The seal was inscribed
with "Seal of vBri-gung Wanhu Office" while
the inscriptions on its back read: "Seal o vBri-gung
Wanhu Office" (right) and "Made by the Protocol
Department in the first month of the eighteenth year
of Hongwu" (left). One side is inscribed with
"Lan No. 70". VBri-gung was also called
vBri-gung-ba in History of the Ming Dynasty, whose
sphere of influence was in the present vBri-gung at
the Mal-gro-gung-dkar County in east of Lhasa. So,
historians also call it vBri-gung. In the thirteenth
century, vBri-gung possessed powerful influence and
beame one of the thirteen Tibetan Wanhus of the Yuan
Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty, following the system implemented
by the Yuan Dynasty, maintained Wanhu Office. VBri-gung
Wanhu Office was established in the eighteenth year
of Hongwu (1385). It was stipulated that the head
of vBri-gung Wanhu Office be equal to th fourth-class
official. The extant seal of vBri-gung Wanhu Office
was bestowed in the year when it was set up. after
its establishment. Living Buddhas of the vBri-gung
Monastery also made direct contact with the Ming Dynasty.
In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu (1391), "vBri-gung
Lama Rin-po-che Chos-kyi-rgyal-po sent his envoys
Bayan-ston-pa and others to present silver seals bestowed
upon them in the Yuan Dynasty" so as to please
the Ming Emperor. And then, he dispatched his envoys
to pay tributes several times, which strengthened
the ties with the Ming Dynasty. Soon, he was conferred
upon the title of State Tutor.