Trekking in Ladakh >> Ladakh Monasteries Tour >> Basgo Gompa
Right on the main road, Among its ridges and pinnacles rise the ruins of an ancient fort the capital of lower Ladakh in the 15th century when the Kingdom was portioned. Today the living apartments of long-dead kings are reduced to rubble, remain. There are three of them, all dedicated to Maitreya, and dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Unrestored since then, their murals are the single main source for the study of the iconography of the period.
In the biggest of the temples, which has a particularly fine image, the fine image, the guardian divinities are relegated to a position of secondary importance. Even the usual place of Mahakala above the main entrance has been usurped by the Bodhisatva Vajrapesi, with the lord of the Quarters occupying prominent positions on either sides. Miniature paintings of court life show the temple's founder. His |
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representations of budhas and Bodhisattvas, the spaces between them taken up with decorative detail, mermaids and elephants, ducks dogs and lion. The ceiling is also cheerfully decorated.
Entered through a fine carved doorway, the Ser-Zangs('Gold and Copper') temple is so called on account of a fine set of the Kanjur and Tenjur in these materials, copied as an act of merit at the instance of Sengge Namgyal. The walls are taken up by the wooden racks in which these are stored, and some small images in bronze and brass are kept in a glass case. The matireya image is too tall for the main structure of the temple, and the head reaches up through an opening in the ceiling. It can be viewed from an enclosed verandah upstairs, the walls of which have interesting, rather secular-seeming paintings in poor condition, of Buddhas in an ideal landscape.
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