Trekking in Ladakh >> Ladakh Monasteries Tour >> Alchi Gompa
Unknown except to a few specialist before the opening of Ladakh in 1974. Alchi has since then been recognized as an artistic site of global importance, and is the main or exclusive subject of several scholoary publications. The alchi Chos-Khor(religious enclave) across the Indus from Saspol is a complex of five temples and associated Chorten. Inscriptions tell us that the Du-Khang, the earliest of temples, was founded by one Kal-dan Shes-rab, an aristocrat of Tibetan descent who had qualified as a lama at Nyarma near Thikse ( now no more than a heap of rubble), one of the few monasteries positively established as having been founded by the gret Rinchen Zang-po. He may have flourished in the second half of the 11th century. The founder of the Sum-tsek, the unique three-storey temple, was another scion of the same family, lama Tshul-Krims od, apparently an adherent of the Dri-gung-pa, and |
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therefore active not earlier than about 1800. What is extraordinary about these and the later Manjushri Lha-Khang, Lotsawa Lha-Khang and Lha-Khang Soma is the almost miraculous state of preservation of their 800 years old murals. They are by far the most extensive surviving examples of the synergetic style which is presumed to have reached is highest level of development in Buddhist Kashmir, but which was obliterated there by the Muslim takeover from the 14th century onwards.
Characteristic of the period the 'Second Spreading' the cult of the five Dhayani Buddhas is heavily stressed at Alchi. The Du-Khang's central image is of Vairocana, the Buddha Resplendent, and its walls are adorned with six superb mandalas illustrating different aspects of the same manifestation of Buddhahood, and their relationships with aspects of the Doctrine. Even the most uninstructed can enjoy the curiously rococo decorative detail constituting a frieze along the tops of the walls, and filling up the space between the Mandalas. On the front wall Mahakala struts above the doorway surrounded by a fierce goddess, heraldic-looking beasts, a mounted warrior and standing figures. Beneath and to one side a royal couple, their dress rendered in meticulous detail and with wine-cups in their hands, is attended by a prince and courtiers.
As the Du-Khang must have been the regular scene of worship in the Chos-Khor, its murals have suffered to some extent from the smoke of the butter-lamps, and also from the rubbing of bodies into that small space. The Sun-tsek, on the other hands its carven wooden façade so startlingly reminiscent of the temple architecture of Kashmir although its decoration is even more elaborate appears not to have suffered the same kind of wear, even before the site was abandoned as a center of living daily worship. It is true thath an inscription records repainting and restoration in the reign of Tashi Namgyal in the 16th century; but even on those parts of the walls that scholars are positive have bot been touched by the restore 's brush, the colors are for the most part as bright and fresh as though painted yesterday.
While the walls of all the three stories are covered with magnificent Mandals, the most striking- and perhaps unique- feature of this temple are the three gigantic Bodhisatva figures in alcoves on the side and back wall, their legs and torsos visible from the ground floor, while their heads extend through openings is the ceiling to the first-floor terrace. What is unusual about these figures is the garments they wear, draped about them from waist to mid-calf, each of them embellished with curious illustrations. To, the right is Manjushri, whose garment, unique among the Alchi paintings shows direct tantric influence, the 84 masters of the Tantra being shown in some interesting poses whose religious significance may not be immediately obvious to the uninitiated.
Not on inch all of wall-space is left unpainted, the Bodhisattvas' alcoves being filled up with gods and Buddhas, some of them shown being worshipped by people whose appearance gives a clue to contemporary dress and lifestyles. To the left of the Avalokiteswara, opposite his lower leg, there is an exquisitely refined rendering of a six-armed green goddess, identified variously as Prajnaparamita, perfection of Wisdom, and Tara, the deliverer, worshipped by a queen and a yellow-robe monk, and surrounded by four other manifestations of herself. Another beautiful, if less sensuous, portrayal of the same goddess appears on the wall of the upper story between two of the Mandalas, opposite a 22 armed Avalokiteswara.
The Manjushri temple has murals of the thousand Buddhas around and old but recently repainted image; the Lotsawa Lha-Khang is on of the few anywhere |
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dedicated to the great translator Rinchen Zang-po; and the Lha-Khang Soma, the new temple, as its name implies is patently of later date than the others, as the style of its murals confirms.
While scholars differ about the precise dates and styles of the Du-Khang and Sumtsek paintings, agreement is complete that they represent an extraordinary survival, and that no effort should be spared to preserve them- at risk now as perhaps never before from the stresses entailed by the passage of thousand of curious visitors before them every year. Their survival to date is no doubt a function of the abandonment of Alchi as a centre of living worship- at what period and for what reason, we shall never know. To this day Alchi chos-Khor retains an atmosphere of peace and serenity which seems to derive from magical blend of its idyllic remoteness-set in an oasis of green fields in a desert of barren mountains and gorges- and the rarefied spirituality expressed with such sophistication on the walls of its temples.
