It is said that during the years of Shein-Tong, Ching dynasty , the old Tu-shi of Min Chung passed away. His daughter (referred to as "the Princess") respected him very much, and was so mournful over his death that she wanted to know what had happened to him. Thus, she turned to the Reincarnated Buddha of the Ning-Hungism (of the Red Sect), Cho-boo-dowl-ro. Cho-boo-dowl-ro was part of the Ha-mon temple, where the princess' family had been worshipping for generations. The princess asked him to go through heaven and hell in order to know the situation of her dead father. It was said that Cho-boo-dowl-ro was such an expert in Buddhism that he could sleep for days without waking up a single time. While he was asleep, he could travel around the "Six Samsara."

Upon accepting the princess' request, Cho-boo-dowl-ro displayed his "sleeping talent" and began to sleep. After a few days he woke up and said to the princess, "I've been searching from heaven to hell for your father but I still failed to find him."

The princess was very upset about this bad news. However, she asked the Cho-boo-dowl-ro to look for the old Tu-shi again. Cho-boo-dowl-ro had no choice but to sleep for another few days.

When he woke up for the sixth time, he still had found no trace of the old Tu-shi. The Princess thought that his inability to find her father was due to her own lack of faith. She then asked Cho-boo-dowl-ro to perform a divination with the eight trigrams. Cho-boo-dowl-ro could not reject her request, so he divined by the eight trigrams and asked the Gods for an answer.

"You have to build a stone bridge which links the Mountain Kong-chu-kung (Nan-wu temple) and the Mountain Dun-an-la (Pao Ma Mountain)," Cho-boo-dowl-ro told the princess. "And then you might be able to find your father." [NOTE: There was, at that point, no Lau-kong Bridge as there is today, linking today's Shi-ma-chou temple to the Shi-ma-ton.]

In order to show her sincerity to the Gods, the princess took out all her pearl necklaces and golden jewelry and brought them to two supervisors in Tow-gi-lu Lane who could help her hire the prominent workers in China. The workers built a stone bridge at the exact spot which Cho-boo-dowl-ro pointed out. While building the bridge, the workers found a white toad. By coincidence, Cho-boo-dowl-ro happened to be there, and instantly declared that the white toad was old Tu-shi. He said he would bring the toad back to his temple and take him to the next life.

After a year had passed, the bridge was finally completed. It was strong and spectacular, a great stone arch that flew across the turbulent, roaring Tzn River. People named it the "Princess Bridge" because it's construction had been funded by the princess alone. At that time, there were many lettered Buddha Incarnates, Lamas, and scholars in Tibet, who doubted whether Cho-boo-dowl-ro had the power to travel though the "Six Samsara."

Whatever the case may be surrounding the mystery Cho-boo-dowl-ro and his powers, certainly the act of building the stone bridge not only brought convenience to the people, but it was also an act of service, which Buddhism promoted.

If wasn't for that fact, it would have been hard for the princes to spend such a fortune building the bridge!

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Originally written in Chinese by Peng Zhong Xing (Senior grade 1, class 2)

Translated into English by Catwei

See this page in Tibetan