Kashmiri Aesthetics at the Royal Monastery in Western Tibet

The royal monastery of Toling, at the center of the former capital of the kingdom of Guge, is singularly important in the history of political authority, religion, and art in the Ngari region of western Tibet. Its founding is attributed to Yeshe Wo (947–1024), then sovereign ruler of Guge. Although the circumstances of its construction remain to be studied, according to later Tibetan historical sources, he established Toling in 996, with his personal chaplain Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055), the renowned Tibetan translator.1 Yeshe Wo issued a royal edict calling for local workshops to create Buddhist art of aesthetic perfection.2 To this end, he invited artists and Buddhist scholars (pandita) to bring Buddhist texts and Buddhist art to Toling. Rinchen Zangpo traveled to monastic universities in India and Kashmir in search of Buddhist texts to take to Tibet. It is believed that the first temples in Toling were embellished by a team of thirty-two Kashmiri artists who accompanied Rinchen Zangpo to Guge from Kashmir.3 

The stupa of Toling is located to the northwest of the main temple and was left in a ruined state following the destruction of religious institutions during the Cultural Revolution. It was subsequently studied and resealed. Recent excavation inside the stupa shows the impact of the Kashmiri aesthetic in western Tibet, as seen in the distinctive iconographic program centered on Vairochana in its sculptures and mural paintings. Pages from an illuminated Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) Sutra manuscript produced during this time within the same artistic environment help contextualize these murals and sculptures. 

The stupa’s iconographic program is clearly related to the ritual practices for Vairochana popular in the early eleventh century. This program emerged from the translations and retranslations by Rinchen Zangpo, based in part on rituals translated into Tibetan during the eighth to ninth century. The stupa statues correspond to the Mahavairochana Tantra, with emphasis on Buddha Vairochana (gold body color) accompanied by bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (white) and Vajrapani (blue). The paintings represent the eight offering goddesses and sixteen great bodhisattvas of the Vajradhatu mandala of Vairochana. 

Kashmiri Aesthetics

The paintings and sculptures of the stupa are characterized by a brilliant palette of bright colors, thickly applied to create an opaque yet lustrous effect. On top of the base color of the body, shading adds the perception of chromatic modeling and volume. On some goddesses, a broad field of pale color was applied to enhance the sense of volume, further accentuated through the repeated use of red or black outlines. Juxtaposed rich colors, such as the crimson and yellow of the fabric clinging to the body of the deep blue statue and the deep yellow body aura against white behind the painted bodhisattvas and goddesses and their lavish gold crown and hair ornaments generate a sense of opulence. The feet of the standing buddha (on the left) demonstrate that artists innovated with gold leaf, goldfields near Toling providing the source. His elongated body and asymmetrical stance, with one foot forward on the lotus pedestal, correspond to the aesthetic seen in the Khartse Avalokiteshvara, adapted to represent the standing buddha in monastic robes. In the small mural paintings (fig. 2), the surrounding bodhisattvas are represented frontally, while all the goddesses are presented in three-quarter profile, displaying the elongated eye characteristic of Kashmiri sculpture, their eyelids thickly outlined in black, as if wearing eyeliner (kohl). The goddesses’ faces have slightly puffed cheeks and small pointed chins, also associated with Kashmiri style.

The bodies of the bodhisattvas exhibit the strong muscular torso and defined waist typical of Kashmiri art. The twists of the goddesses’ lithe bodies and their varied arm positions create a dynamic sense of motion. Although portrayed as immobile, the painted bodhisattvas echo the varied arm positions. The goddesses wear veils behind their hair, in front of the ovoid halo (prabha), and two sets of earrings: a small gold ring on the upper earlobe and a hoop with concentric pearls and gems suspended from the lower lobe. The veil is typical for both goddesses and female donor figures in Kashmiri sculpture. The double earrings are also found in the roughly contemporary Kashmiri sculpture of Lakshmi, so one may presume that it constituted a fashionable element for women in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent.4 Furthermore, the veil and the double earrings adorn the goddess Prajnaparamita in a manuscript collected by Giuseppe Tucci at Toling (fig. 3) whose illumination is traditionally attributed to Kashmiri artists at the beginning of the eleventh century.5 The thick ringlets of curly black hair framing the goddess’s forehead also reflect Kashmiri fashion, as does the fit of the goddess’s lower garment (dhoti) to emphasize the lower belly, two features also apparent in a fragmentary page from a Prajnaparamita Sutra manuscript from Toling.

A seated silver Manjushri in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (fig. 4), is a helpful comparison for the seated bodhisattvas of Toling stupa’s murals. The silver Manjushri is sculpted in the Kashmiri aesthetic mode, with three-leaf crown, flowing upward scarf, elongated eyes, and other characteristic features. The sculpture’s very small scale and light weight indicate that it was probably used for the rituals involving a group of such sculptures such as initiation into a mandala, as its highly portable nature made it possible for teachers to carry it on their travels. 

Contextual  Considerations of Illuminated Manuscripts from Toling

In the fragmentary page of a Prajnaparamita Sutra manuscript (fig. 5), the apparel, coiffure, and jewelry of the  two offering goddesses accompanying six-armed Prajnaparamita correspond closely to the goddesses’ images in the stupa (fig. 2). Their garments’ floral roundels on red background also closely resemble the painted decor of the standing buddha sculpture alcove (fig. 6), making the buddha look as if he were surrounded by textiles. In addition, one of the main designs of the dhoti of the standing bodhisattva sculpture is comparable to that of the dhotis in the illuminations. Thus, it is quite probable that this manuscript was produced in the ateliers of Toling.

The production and dissemination of Buddhist manuscripts—particularly illuminated manuscripts of the Prajnaparamita Sutra literature—lay at the crux of intense multicultural religious transfer and artistic transformations, as these stemmed from the cult of the book practiced in Mahayana Buddhism. The practice of donating embellished manuscripts of Mahayana sutras was intended to generate additional merit for the donors and for the community. The richly illuminated manuscripts of the Prajnaparamita Sutra made in Toling are the tangible products of the royal edict to foster the implantation of Buddhism through the promotion of artistic and scribal excellence.

The Tibetan translations faithfully retain the wording of the Indian antecedents of the text, but the manuscripts of the Prajnaparamita Sutra found at Toling are written in Tibetan, in an elegant and stylized calligraphy of the highest quality. Rather than the long and narrow birch bark, palm leaves, and clay-coated paper used in their Indian antecedents, these manuscripts were created on wider large sheets of smooth beige paper.6 The elaborate illuminations in the Toling Prajnaparamita Sutra manuscripts of the late tenth to eleventh century proceeded from the use of this large-scale and finely finished Tibetan paper, which afforded the painters a support that allowed a new degree of artistic refinement, following Yeshe Wo’s edict.

Reflections on Chronology 

One element of the jewelry represented in the wall paintings may help to provide chronological context. In Tibet, it is customary for aristocratic men to wear earrings,7 but none adorn any of the donor figures, male or female, in the Toling stupa. Although we do not know when this custom started, it is interesting that the goddesses all display a small gold ring on their upper lobes and very ostentatious earrings on their lower lobes, while the bodhisattvas have no earrings on their upper lobes. This contrasts with the mural paintings made in 1041 in the Tabo Ambulatory, where all the great bodhisattvas sport a small gold ring in their upper earlobes as well as large earrings suspended from their lower lobes, though none of the clay sculptures produced at the same time have this upper earring.8 This may be an indication that the paintings of the Toling stupa were creations of artists coming directly from Kashmir, such as those said to accompany Rinchen Zangpo. As Kashmiri artists, they would be more likely to faithfully represent the Kashmiri/Indian jewelry traditions, while in Tabo, the presence of the upper earring for the painted bodhisattva may indicate an adaptation of the original Kashmiri/Indian jewelry model to suit the taste of their Tibetan patrons. In comparison with the Tabo murals, those of the Toling stupa display a much thicker application of paint, which may reflect a different primer technique for the wall prior to painting. This results in a striking opulence of color, calling to mind the lustrous Kashmiri manuscript illuminations. 

Considering the magnificence of the sculptures and paintings within this exceptional stupa and the iconographic program with its emphasis on Vairochana, the deity traditionally associated with the Tibetan sovereigns, it is probable that this stupa was made to honor the memory of a highly important person at Toling, one whose devotion to the ideals of Buddhism was equaled by his spiritual inspiration and aesthetic appreciation. This person may indeed have been Yeshe Wo, whose work to establish Toling as an epicenter of Buddhist learning and art in Tibet ceased with his death in 1024. Therefore, this stupa may have been created about 1025 to honor the memory of Yeshe Wo on the anniversary ceremonies a year after his death.