The Style of Upper Western Tibet under Gelukpa Patronage

Roberto Vitali

Blue-skinned goddess wearing flowing, extravagant garments dances while playing small string instrument — Offering Goddess, detail of Buddha Shakyamuni Surrounded by the Sixteen Arhats, main wall of the niche from the throne frame; Toling Dukhang “Ornament of the World” (also known as the “Red Temple”), apse, west wall, Toling Monastery; Toling, Guge Kingdom, Ngari region, western Tibet (present-day TAR, China); ca. 1424–1458; photograph by Jaroslav Poncar, 1993, courtesy Western Himalayan Archive Vienna

Murals at Toling Dukhang “Ornament of the World”

Toling Monastery, Guge Kingdom, Ngari region, western Tibet (present-day TAR, China) 15th century (ca. 1424–1458)

Offering Goddess, detail of Buddha Shakyamuni Surrounded by the Sixteen Arhats, main wall of the niche from the throne frame; Toling Dukhang “Ornament of the World” (also known as the “Red Temple”), apse, west wall, Toling Monastery; Toling, Guge Kingdom, Ngari region, western Tibet (present-day TAR, China); ca. 1424–1458; photograph by Jaroslav Poncar, 1993, courtesy Western Himalayan Archive Vienna

Summary

For centuries, western Tibet was the crossroad of artistic traditions from Kashmir, North India, and Nepal. Toling Monastery, established in this region by the tenth-century king-monk Lha Lama Yeshe Wo, was converted in the early fifteenth century to the newly founded Geluk Buddhist tradition. Historian Roberto Vitali examines the temple’s vibrant murals in a unique style developed under Gelug patronage; they guide worshippers from a mundane main assembly hall to an ultramundane inner sanctum.

Key Terms

Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution was a political and social movement in communist China from 1966 to 1976. During this time, traditional culture across all of China came under violent attack, and almost all religious institutions were shut down and many were physically destroyed. In minority areas, ethnic differences and indigenous cultural practices, such as use of Tibetan language or dress, were seen as backward and subject to persecution, adding an additional racial dimension. Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans fled to India or Nepal, and many Himalayan artworks were destroyed or scattered abroad.

Geluk

The Geluk are the most recent of the major “Later Diffusion” traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Founded on the teachings of Tsongkhapa (1357–1419 CE) and his students, the Geluk are known for their emphasis on monastic discipline and the scholastic study of Mahayana philosophy, especially Madhyamaka. In the seventeenth century the Geluk supporting the Dalai Lamas became the largest and most powerful Buddhist tradition in both Tibet and Mongolia, where city-sized Geluk monasteries and their satellites proliferated widely. For long periods, Geluk monks effectively ruled both countries in dual-rulership or priest-patron political systems. A follower of the Geluk is called a Gelukpa.

lama

In the Tibetan Buddhist and Bon traditions, “lama” is a term of respect for a high monk or religious teacher, often a monastery abbot or a tulku. The Sanskrit equivalent is “guru,” meaning “venerable one” or “teacher.” In some traditions, like the Kagyu, lama is also a person who has completed a three-year retreat practice.

monastery

A monastery is a place where monks live, study, and perform ritual. It includes temples and other structures. Monasteries are central to Buddhism, and are also important in Bon, Hinduism, and Daoism. In Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian areas, some monasteries are enormous, wealthy, and powerful institutions, with branches of satellite monasteries forming networks across regions, often with thousands of monks, many decorated chapels, and huge holdings of land. Other monasteries, called hermitages, can be extremely simple, little more than a cave where hermits meditate. Generally, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery will have an assembly hall, several temples (Tib. lhakhang) for worship of specific deities, a protector chapel, as well as monks’ accommodations. A related institution in Newar Buddhism are the baha and bahi.

Pakmodru

Pakmodru is a monastery in south-central Tibet, as well as a branch of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism associated with this monastery. The leader of Pakmodru, Changchup Gyeltsen (1302–1364), was able to take control of central Tibet in 1354, thus ending the hegemony of the Mongol Empire and the Sakya tradition in the Himalayas. The power of the Pakmodru faded due to internal conflicts in the fifteenth century.

Sakya

Sakya is the name of a monastery and of a major tradition of Tibetan Buddhism that originated there during the Later Diffusion of Buddhism. Sakya Monastery was the seat of power during Sakya-Mongol rule in Tibet (1260–1350s), founded on the priest-patron relationship. Notable Sakya figures include Sakya Pandita (1182–1251), who played an instrumental role in establishing Tibetan relations with the Mongols; Drogon Chogyel Pakpa (1234-1280), who served as Qubilai Khan’s imperial preceptor and invented the Pakpa Script; and Buton (1290–1364), who compiled the Tibetan Canon. The Sakya are particularly known for their Lamdre teachings. In the 1350s, Pakmodru replaced the Sakya political prominence.

In 1409, Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), the founder of the tradition, decided to send his disciples known as the “six flags of the borders” back to their native lands in the outskirts of the Tibetan plateau to diffuse his teachings. One “flag,” Ngawang Drakpa, returned to Toling in Guge—the land in upper western Tibet with a great past. He came back with the consent of the kings. With the support of the local rulers—Namgyelde first and then his son Puntsokde—Ngawang Drakpa engaged in the promotion of the Gelukpa doctrine and carried out a building phase at Toling.

The Gelukpa in Guge, Western Tibet

The end of the / domination of Tibet and the rise to power of the Pakmodrupa family in central Tibet in the second half of the fourteenth century brought a new status quo to the plateau. Two factors contributed to the seminal presence of the Gelukpa in Guge:

The Pakmodrupa, followers of the tradition for centuries, became supporters of Tsongkhapa.
The new lords of Tibet allowed the royal houses in upper western Tibet—from Mustang to Guge—to recover autonomy.

The rulers of Guge could thus patronize the work of Ngawang Drakpa. They granted him supreme religious status, which they took away from the previous officiating of the Sakyapa tradition.

Toling Monastery

In those days the temples of the ancient , second in importance only to Lhasa Jokhang and Samye, occupied the western side of the plain, where the complex stood. Ngawang Drakpa and his successors extended the monastery to the plain’s eastern side. The Gelukpa surrounded the sacred precinct with a boundary wall, now eradicated. The monastic complex assumed the shape it retained until recent time, before being ravaged during the (1966–1976).

Toling was founded by the great king-monk Lha Lama Yeshe Wo (947–1024) in 996. He built its lofty temple in the form of the fortress of a , a unique architectural structure in Tibet.

When Ngawang Drakpa reached Toling, the monastery had benefited from centuries of grand religious and secular achievements. The temple complex signaled a tradition of greatness. After the apogee of upper western Tibet during the late tenth and eleventh centuries, Toling continued to go through important phases marked by the tenure in the monastery of great religious traditions of Tibet. It belonged to the Drigungpa, the Tselpa, and, finally, the Sakyapa through their Zhalu associates. These phases left significant cultural impacts, but they were not as important as the contributions to Toling by the Gelukpa.

Toling Dukhang (Assembly Hall)

Toling (assembly hall), known as “Ornament of the World” (Dzamling Gyen), holds prime position among the Gelukpa foundations at Toling but was not the school’s earliest congregation hall. Following Tsongkhapa’s policy to convert preexisting monasteries, the ancient temple founded by Yeshe Wo was turned into that of the Gelukpa tradition. A first move was that the front part of the temple was transformed and expanded to form an assembly hall (Dukhang Tubwang Dudulma).

Dukhang “Ornament of the World” was built to congregate the growing monastic community. The mural I focus on here is found in this temple (fig. 1). Other building phases followed in the same (eastern) area of the monastery, first Toling Lhakhang Karpo (“White Chapel”) and then Toling Serkhang (“Gold Chapel”). Toling Dukhang was meant to gather the monks from the territory of Guge south of the Langchen Khabab (Sutlej), and Lhakhang Karpo was for the monks from the northern side of the river.

The foundation date of Toling Dukhang is nowhere found in the literature or epigraphs. It was built during the abbotship of Ngawang Drakpa. Possible construction dates range from after 1424 to before 1458.

Toling “flew high” again under the Gelukpa—the Dukhang was a major step—to paraphrase the proclamation of Yeshe Wo. He threw his gong in the air, announcing that he would found a lofty temple wherever it landed. The gong flew (ding) high (to) in the sky. Toding (Tibetan: mtho lding) is the Gelukpa-period name in the tradition’s literature, although Toling (Tibetan: tho ling) is preferable, being the original one.

A seventeenth-century text giving a description of the temples at Toling says that the main statues of Dukhang “Ornament of the World” were the —known as Tubpa Gandima—but they have been destroyed. The murals depict deities of the three lower . At the time of my first stay in 1985, the inner space of Toling Dukhang was devoid of shrines, monumental statues, and the paraphernalia commonly found inside a Tibetan temple. The emptiness of the interior conveyed a sense of immediacy to the murals.

Wall Paintings of the Dukhang

The work on the walls of the Dukhang goes beyond a mere transposition of iconographic themes. The double space of Toling Dukhang—a larger hall for the congregation and the smaller, connected inner sanctum—has a dual function. The assembly hall is for the mundane plane, the inner holy space is for the ultramundane. Mundanity is represented in the episodes of life and a scene of the local court (fig. 2), together with religious and secular inscriptions.

Woman wearing patterned dhoti stands before tree and grasps branch as child emerges from her left side — Fig. 2.
Maya, Mother of the Buddha, Delivering Her Child; Toling Dukhang “Ornament of the World” (also known as the “Red Temple”), Toling Monastery; Toling, Guge Kingdom, Ngari region, western Tibet (present-day TAR, China); ca. 1424–1458; photograph by Jaroslav Poncar, 1993, courtesy Western Himalayan Archive Vienna

The extraordinary size of the deities in the sanctum, coupled with an ascensional sensation, gives to the faithful the impression of being transported to the realm of the gods.

The painted wooden planks of the ceiling depict a variety of animals (lions, birds, garudas) and mythical beings () (fig. 3), a theme adopted in other Gelukpa temples in Guge—an innovative development of the ornamented ceilings at Alchi (Ladakh), for instance, which reproduce precious fabrics.

Timber ceiling featuring richly decorated panels: geometric designs, two fantastical birds, roundels, and floral motifs — Fig. 3.
Birds painted on the ceiling’s wooden planks; Toling Dukhang “Ornament of the World” (also known as the “Red Temple”), Toling Monastery; Toling, Guge Kingdom, Ngari region, western Tibet (present-day TAR, China); ca. 1424–1458; photograph by Jaroslav Poncar, 1993, courtesy Western Himalayan Archive Vienna

The wall paintings of the Dukhang leave a stunning impression on anyone who has in mind the history of Toling, Guge, and upper western Tibet at large. The many religious phases in upper western Tibet, marked by excellence overall, brought to its lands various stylistic representations that substantiated the doctrinal systems that put roots in the region. Upper western Tibet for centuries was a showcase of the expressions typical of these stylistic elaborations. The sequence of representations in the lands of the west amounts to the idioms of Kashmir, the manner of Gangetic India born in the period of the Pala dynasty and imported to Tibet in its local interpretation, the alternative from the Kathmandu Valley, and the idiom of Zhalu, brought to Mongol China by the Newar master Arniko (Anige) and reelaborated at its court.

The “Gelukpa style of Upper Western Tibet”

The confluence of these idioms—closer or more distant from the phase brought to Guge by Ngawang Drakpa—gave birth to what I call the Gelukpa style of upper western Tibet (“Geluk Tori,” Tibetan: Dge lugs stod ris) documented in Toling Dukhang. This distinctive stylistic conception adopted by the Gelukpa found application in successive murals in Toling Lhakhang Karpo and the Serkhang at Tsaparang inside Chokhang Marpo, at various other temples in Guge, and farther away in Spiti at Tabo and Lo Mentang in Mustang in Tubchen Lhakhang.

The deities in the Gelukpa style of upper western Tibet preserve the elliptical faces and slender torsos of the Kashmiri idiom (figs. 4 and 5). But the style in general is mellowed by the Zhalu representations that reflect the gentle Newar Pala idiom.

Head of blue-green-skinned deity wearing gilded crown and heavy earrings against red background — Fig. 4
Deity Representative of the Gelukpa Style of Upper Western Tibet; Toling Dukhang “Ornament of the World” (also known as the “Red Temple”), apse, north wall, Toling Monastery; Toling, Guge Kingdom, Ngari region, western Tibet (present-day TAR, China); ca. 1424–1458; photograph by Jaroslav Poncar, 1993, courtesy Western Himalayan Archive Vienna

Crowned deity wearing pink dhoti seated on lotus, hands posed in mudras, within ovoid scrollwork border — Fig. 5
Deity Representative of the Gelukpa Style of Upper Western Tibet; Toling Dukhang “Ornament of the World” (also known as the “Red Temple”), apse, south wall, Toling Monastery; Toling, Guge Kingdom, Ngari region, western Tibet (present-day TAR, China); ca. 1424–1458; photograph by Jaroslav Poncar, 1993, courtesy Western Himalayan Archive Vienna

The color palette of the murals is richer than the restrained antecedents from Kashmir. All colors are used in deeper hues. Thrones are elaborate, with mythical beings, caryatids, and heraldic animals. Landscape is absent.

The genesis of the Gelukpa style of upper western Tibet is another tantalizing question if one looks at the last phase in the land before the advent of Tsongkhapa’s tradition, characterized by few existing specimens of the idiom popular at Zhalu.

The style has no extant antecedents. It was developed before Toling Dukhang by a single artist or artists of a workshop, as shown by evidence inside this temple. The earliest application of the Gelukpa style of upper western Tibet, so accomplished that it did not need any further experimentation or development, is found in another temple at Toling. Its brilliantly developed expression is first met in the major temple founded by Yeshe Wo in 996. Various smaller sacred rooms in the structure were renovated when an area of the major temple was transformed into an assembly hall. The idiom adopted was the “Gelukpa style of upper western Tibet,” shown in pictures taken by Western visitors before Toling’s destruction during the Cultural Revolution.
The painted masterpieces in Toling Dukhang are credited to Sanggye Zangpo and Konchok Dorje by an inscription inside the temple, one more denial of the stereotype in vogue with Tibetologists of the past generations that Tibetan art was strictly anonymous.

Text © Roberto Vitali

Footnotes

Those known as the Gelukpa are practitioners of a philosophical system and members of the religious school established by Tsongkhapa around the end of the fourteenth century or the beginning of the fifteenth. Its founder developed a religious system from earlier traditions, especially the Kadampa and the Sakyapa. The Dalai Lamas belong to the Gelukpa. See Repo 2011.

Vitali 1996, 505–8, and Vitali 2012a, 147–52.

Vitali 2012a, 211–12.

Wylie 1980, 319–22.

For Mustang, see Vitali 2012b, 122–23; for Guge, see Vitali 1996, 477, 471–76.

Mkhar nag lo tsa ba, Dga’ ldan chos ’byung, fols. 84b, 6–85a, 2.

A valuable description of Toling before it suffered lethal treatment is in Young 1918, the report of his 1912 visit to the monastery. It is the most brilliant and accurate description of Toling before it was too late.

In 1985, when I was first at Toling, I saw a wrecking ball, with an iron rod around it, abandoned inside Toling Lhakhang Karpo. It was used to destroy the statues.

See Cook 2018.

Gu ge Khyi thang pa Ye shes dpal 1977, Rin chen bzang po’i rnam thar ’bring po 89, lines 1–2.

The similarity with Samye, advocated by scholarship, does not stand. The temples of Samye overall formed a mandala. Toling’s main temple alone was shaped as the core of a mandala.

Vitali 1996, passim.

Vitali 2012a, 189.

Vitali 2012a, 133–37.

Snying stobs rgya mtsho 2012, fol. 2b, 6–7.

Snying stobs rgya mtsho 2012, fols. 2b, 7–3a, 1.

nTholing [sic] Monastery, plates on 28–33.

nTholing [sic] Monastery, plates on 32–33.

Tucci Photographic Archive, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (IsMEO), acc. no. 6074/3.

Tucci Photographic Archives, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (IsMEO), acc. no. 6074/2.

See Tucci Photographic Archive, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (IsMEO), acc. nos. 6097/14, 6035/12, 6097/15, 6571/3.

Vitali 2012a, 131–33, 137.