A Landmark Monument in the Art History of Ladakh

Nils Martin

Comprehensive view of multi-story white building with red trim perched on hilltop before rocky, eroded mountainside — Temple of Wanla viewed from the northeast; Wanla, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; stone masonry, adobes, and timbers; approx. 32 × 32 × 37 ft. (10 × 10 × 11.5 m); photograph by Nils Martin

The Temple of Wanla

Wanla, Ladakh, India first half of the 14thcentury

Temple of Wanla viewed from the northeast; Wanla, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; stone masonry, adobes, and timbers; approx. 32 × 32 × 37 ft. (10 × 10 × 11.5 m); photograph by Nils Martin

Summary

The temple of Wanla was built as a family shrine for the local chieftain Bhak Darskya, a follower of the Drigung Kagyu Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Historian Nils Martin parses the complex styles and iconographies of this elaborate shrine, constructed when Vajrayana Buddhism was waning in India and Kashmir but blossoming in Tibet. The continued activity of the artists and patrons who created the temple is reflected in other monuments in this area of Ladakh.

Key Terms

Beri style

Beri is a style of Tibetan painting based on Newar painting of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. With the destruction of many Indian monasteries in the thirteenth century, Nepal became an increasingly important source for Buddhist teachers and artisan.

Eight Manifestations of Padmasambhava

The Eight Manifestations of Padmasambhava are eight names of the legendary tantric master and yogin, who became known when he defeated the hostile spirits of Tibet while converting the land and its gods to Buddhism. The names became standardized and assumed iconographic forms now known as the Eight Manifestations of the Guru. Different texts give varied lists of these manifestations.

Kagyu

The Kagyu are a major Later Diffusion tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu trace their lineages back to the Mahasiddhas, the great tantric masters of medieval India. The Kagyu are known for their yogic practices, as well as the teaching of Mahamudra, or the “Great Seal.” The Kagyu tradition includes many different branches, such as the Karma, Drukpa, Drigung, Tselpa, Pakmodru, and others. The most influential leaders of the Karma Kagyu are the Karmapas, a tulku lineage associated with that Kagyu branch. In Bhutan, the Drukpa Kagyu tradition serves as the state religion. A follower of the Kagyu is called a Kagyupa.

Nyingma

The Nyingma are a tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Nyingma trace their lineages back to the first introduction of Buddhism into the Himalayas in the time of the Tibetan Empire, most importantly to the legendary Indian yogin Padmasambhava. The Nyingma are known for their “treasure revealers” (Tib. terton), lamas who travel the Himalayas, revealing ritual texts, objects, and hidden lands thought to be concealed within the Tibetan landscape. The Nyingma are also famed for the Dzogchen teachings, a set of meditative practices focused on the bardo states, and the nature of the mind as pure, self-arising consciousness. Unlike other Buddhist traditions, many Nyingma practitioners are not celibate and can marry, raise families, and grant Vajrayana initiations and teachings to their children.

patronage

A practice of hiring and commissioning artists to create works of art. In religious context patrons were often rulers, religious leaders, as well as ordinary people. (see also donor)

The three-story temple of Wanla holds a special place in the history and art history of the western Himalayan region of Ladakh and Tibet. It is the largest extant Buddhist monument of the mid-thirteenth to mid-fifteenth century in Ladakh and architecturally one of the most elaborate. It contains, moreover, an illuminating foundation inscription as well as vast original ensembles of sculptures and murals in relatively good condition.

The Foundation of a Local Chief

Through its location and its foundation inscription, the Wanla temple attests to a concentration of political, economic, and religious powers in a local chief of Ladakh around the first decades of the fourteenth century, a period otherwise little known in the history of the region.

Visible from afar, the temple overlooks the confluence of two rivers (fig. 2), along which used to run a profitable trade route connecting to Tibet, the , and northern India to the east, and to and Central Asia to the west. It was built as the crowning jewel of an ancient fortified complex that also included a settlement and a three-story palace. Prior to the foundation of the temple, the top floor of that palace, ornamented with wood carvings of Kashmiri style, probably served as a family shrine for the Wanla chiefs.

Small collection of buildings perched on outcropping situated in verdant river valley between barren mountains — Fig. 2.
The fortified complex of Wanla viewed from the northeast, with the three-story palace on top of the peak to the northwest (at right); Wanla, Ladakh, India; gradual construction since at least the 13th century; approx. 300 × 300 ft. (90 × 90 m), excluding the outpost to the southeast (at left); photograph by Nils Martin

The foundation inscription of the temple recounts how its patron, a local chief bearing the partly non-Tibetan name Bhak Darskya, conquered several strategic sites around his ancestral estate before rising to regional prominence, presumably supported by nearby Kashmir. Later in his life, he founded the temple to accumulate for the of all sentient beings and, in particular, for ensuring a good rebirth for his parents and himself, following a pattern typical of Buddhist art . This foundation marked Wanla as a significant place in Ladakh not only for politics and economics but for religious activities as well.

Viewed from outside, the temple recalls the famous three-story temple of Alchi (early thirteenth century), about eighteen and a half miles (thirty kilometers) east, also in Ladakh. Its architectural conception, its iconographic program, and the style of its artworks, however, differ considerably.

Both temples feature a square ground floor with an entrance hall at the front and three niches in the back and sides, a square gallery of about the same width as the ground floor, and a small cubic lantern. Yet, unlike the Alchi temple, the Wanla temple appears from several perplexing architectural details to have undergone a gradual transformation from a one-story building to its present shape, presumably over a few decades.

A Rich Iconographic Program Displaying Tantric Teachings

Inside are found three large clay sculptures in the niches (fig. 3), a set of statues modeled in clay and manuscript paper on the back side of the gallery (fig. 4), and murals on all the walls. Together, these artworks compose an iconographic program so rich that the temple has been considered one of the earliest encyclopedic monuments of Tibet.

View through columns and textiles of densely muraled wall featuring niche containing tall Bodhisattva statue — Fig. 3
Temple of Wanla, the main wall of the ground floor, with the colossal statue of Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara enshrined in the main niche; Wanla, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; photograph by Nils Martin

View of niche ledge decorated with murals and statues; at level with faces of eleven-headed Bodhisattva statue — Fig. 4 Temple of Wanla, the back side of the gallery floor, where papier-mâché statues composing a Drigung lineage are displayed on a ledge on either side of the upper rows of heads of the statue; Wanla, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; photograph by Nils Martin

The colossal fifteen-foot-tall clay statue of the main niche represents the eleven-headed form of , the personal of Bhak Darskya. The cult focused on this universal form was considered by some the vehicle subsuming all other Buddhist practices. Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara is represented again in an admirable mural illustrating aspects of his and practice that may have been difficult to achieve in sculpture (figs. 5 and 6). There, the deity is properly endowed with a thousand arms and hands showing various attributes and gestures. At his feet, Bhak Darskya, his family members, and a few monks are portrayed performing a ritual. The nearby representation of King Songtsen Gampo, recognized as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara since at least the eleventh century, may have served to relate the patron to him in terms of religious practice if not of enlightened political activities.

Mural depicting Bodhisattva with eleven heads arranged in five tiers; arms so numerous they resemble wings — Fig. 5
Eleven-Headed Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara Surrounded by Related Divine Figures, including King Songtsen Gampo (lower right corner), and donors performing a ritual (bottom); temple of Wanla, ground floor, left side wall of the left niche; Wanla, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; natural pigments on painting plaster; approx. 5 × 4 ft. (1.5 × 1.2 m); photograph by Nils Martin

Close view of head and shoulders of eleven-headed Bodhisattva; flanked by dozens of hands posed in mudras — Fig. 6 Detail of Eleven-Headed Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara’s lower faces and nearby hands; temple of Wanla, ground floor, left sidewall of the left niche; Wanla, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; photograph by Nils Martin

In general, the murals are arranged hierarchically from the more inclusive to the more tantric as one progresses from the entrance to the back of the temple and contemplates the walls from bottom to top and from their periphery to their center (fig. 3). Among them figure numerous tantric assemblies with deities in sexual union, which were rarely represented in western Tibet, if at all, before the late thirteenth century, as the associated teachings were not yet openly promoted. Some of these assemblies, including the Eight Forms of Padmasambhava and the Eight Pronouncements (fig. 7), relate to the teachings of the Ancient () tradition, allegedly obtained during the height of the (mid-eighth to early ninth century). Others, like the of the deity Chakrasamvara, relate to the teachings of the New traditions (Sarma), obtained from India and Nepal over the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The combined practice of these teachings was common within different branches of the tradition, which carried on the teachings of Gampopa and formed a large portion of the New traditions.

Reddish mural depicting many-armed deity at center surrounded by multitude of portraits arranged in grid pattern — Fig. 7. Super assembly of the Eight Pronouncements, broadly following the extended sadhana recovered by Nyangrel Nyima Wozer; temple of Wanla, ground floor, back left wall; Wanla, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; natural pigments and gold on painting plaster; approx. 8 ft. × 5 ft. 10 7/8 in. (2.5 × 1.8 m); photograph by Nils Martin

Several assemblies and all the lineages of transmission from master to disciple represented in the set of statues as well as on top of the walls (fig. 8) relate, in particular, the Wanla temple to the Drigung branch of the Kagyu tradition, which was firmly implanted in western Tibet since the early thirteenth century. The foundation inscription specifies that the youngest son of Bhak Darskya received teachings from the hierarch of Drigung .

Enthroned Buddha flanked by attendants, set amidst dozens of deity portraits arranged in registers — Fig. 8. The Assembly of Shakyamuni Being “Beneficial to See,” from the Manjushrimulakalpa Tantra, with the seven Green Tara goddesses within the Drigung tradition represented in front of the assembly (seen below Shakyamuni); temple of Wanla, ground floor, front right wall; Wanla, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; natural pigments on painting plaster; approx. 5 ft. × 6 ft. 4 3/4 in. (1.5 × 1.9 m); photograph by Nils Martin

An Aesthetic Change from Kashmiri to Central Tibetan Art

The sculptures and murals of the temple are attributed in the foundation inscription to three artists with Tibetan names composing a familial workshop. However, the hands of at least ten painters, from masters to apprentices, can be recognized in the murals of the temple. These artists followed not the Kashmiri style characteristic of earlier western Tibetan art, but the styles in vogue in central Tibet at the time, which derived from northeastern Indian and Nepalese arts.

The murals predominantly feature the repertoire of motifs associated with the northeastern Indian style (Sharri), while that of the Nepalese style (Beri) was reserved for a secondary stylistic mode. This mode served in part to bring variation to the thrones of the main deities and to convey a gradation from secondary “Nepalese” deities to principal “northeastern Indian” ones in a few assemblies (fig. 9).

Mural detail showing two crowned deities wearing long necklaces seated before red nimbuses — Fig. 9. A secondary figure wearing golden “Nepalese” jewelry (left) and another wearing “eastern Indian” jewelry with golden crests fixed on red bands, in two neighboring assemblies; temple of Wanla, ground floor, main wall; Wanla, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; natural pigments on painting plaster; approx. 4 3/4 × 5 7/8 in. (12 × 15 cm); photograph by Nils Martin

Together with the promulgation of highly tantric teachings, this aesthetic change may have reflected the gradual religious alignment of Ladakhi patrons with central Tibetan Buddhist schools over the thirteenth century. It may, however, have also become inevitable owing to a lack of available craftsmanship from Kashmir following the brutal conquest of that region by the Mongols in the mid-thirteenth century.

The Wanla Group of Monuments

The Wanla temple is not the only Buddhist monument of Ladakh displaying the above-mentioned iconographic and stylistic features. In fact, they are also seen in at least five other temples and a gateway . These were founded in areas under the political influence of Bhak Darskya, and most of their murals appear to have been executed by painters also active in Wanla. In particular, the great gateway stupa of Nyoma, in Ladakh’s Jangtang, enshrining an admirable upper painted chamber (fig. 10), almost certainly corresponds to the commemorative stupa that was founded by the sons of Bhak Darskya after the passing of their father.

View from below of wooden mandala affixed to ceiling of square chamber with muraled walls — Fig. 10. Great gateway stupa of Nyoma, upper painted chamber, featuring a unique six-tiered dropped ceiling with wooden sculptures composing a mandala of Akshobhya; Nyoma, Ladakh, India; first half of the 14th century; stone masonry, poplar timbers, wooden sculptures, natural pigments, and gold; approx. 6 ft. 6 3/4 in. × 6 ft. 6 3/4 in. (2 × 2 m); photograph by Nils Martin

Epigraphic, art historical, and radiocarbon-dating evidence concur to suggest that the Wanla group of monuments developed over several decades from the first to the second half of the fourteenth century. It attests to the continuous influence of the Drigung tradition over Ladakh even during the period of – rule in central Tibet (1264–1354).

The foundation of the Wanla temple appears to have been crucial for the creation of this group of monuments. Presumably, some of the numerous artisans who were hired to build, decorate, and furnish this large monument with Buddhist images over the years continued to be active in the next decades under the patronage of the same group of nobles constituted around Bhak Darskya. The creation of the Wanla group, in turn, had a tangible influence on later mural painting in Ladakh, with some painters active in the first half of the fifteenth century carrying on the artistic principles associated with it.

Footnotes

On this site, see Neil Howard, “The Development of the Fortresses of Ladakh c. 950 to c. 1650 A.D,” East and West 39, no. 1 (1989): 257–61; Holger Neuwirth and Carmen Auer, eds., The Three Storied Temple of Wanla (Graz: Verlag des Technischen Universität Graz, 2015), 15–27; Roland Pabel, “Der Wanla Tempel in Ladakh: Konstruktive Interventionen an einem buddhistischen Sakralbau” (PhD diss., Graz, Institute of Architecture Technology, 2014), 57–67; on the palace, see  Désirée De Antoni, Hilde Vets, and Nils Martin, “On Top of the Chiefdom: The Three-Storey Tower in Wanla,” in Against Forgetting: Investigating and Preserving Historic Buildings in a Himalayan Village, ed. Alexandra Skedzuhn-Safir et al. (Cottbus-Senftenberg: Brandenburgische Technische Universität, 2021), 211–36.

On this inscription, see Kurt Tropper, “The Historical Inscription in the Gsum Brtsegs Temple at Wanla, Ladakh,” in Text, Image and Song in Transdisciplinary Dialogue. PIATS 2003: Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oxford 2003, ed. Deborah Klimburg-Salter, Kurt Tropper, and Christian Jahoda, Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library 10/7 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 105–50; Nils Martin, “The Wanla Group of Monuments: 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist Murals in Ladakh” (PhD diss., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 2022), 127–39.

On the architecture of the temple, see Gerald Kozicz, “The Wanla Temple,” in Buddhist Art and Tibetan Patronage, Ninth to Fourteenth Centuries. PIATS 2000: Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000, ed. Deborah Klimburg-Salter and Eva Allinger, Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library 2/7 (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 127–36; Roland Pabel, “Der Wanla Tempel in Ladakh: Konstruktive Interventionen an einem buddhistischen Sakralbau” (PhD diss., Graz, Institute of Architecture Technology, 2014), 68–135; Holger Neuwirth and Carmen Auer, eds., The Three Storied Temple of Wanla (Graz: Verlag des Technischen Universität Graz, 2015).

See Roland Pabel, “Der Wanla Tempel in Ladakh: Konstruktive Interventionen an einem buddhistischen Sakralbau” (PhD diss., Graz, Institute of Architecture Technology, 2014), 318–37.

See Christian Luczanits, “Beneficial to See: Early Drigung Painting,” in Painting Traditions of the Drigung Kagyu School, ed. David P. Jackson, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 5 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2015), 244.

On the iconographic program of the temple, see Christian Luczanits, “Beneficial to See: Early Drigung Painting,” in Painting Traditions of the Drigung Kagyu School, ed. David P. Jackson, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 5 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2015), 214–59; Nils Martin, “The Wanla Group of Monuments: 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist Murals in Ladakh” (PhD diss., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 2022), 149–68.

On the early iconography of this tradition, see Christian Luczanits, “Beneficial to See: Early Drigung Painting,” in Painting Traditions of the Drigung Kagyu School, ed. David P. Jackson, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 5 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2015), 214–59; David P. Jackson, Painting Traditions of the Drigung Kagyu School, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 5 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2015), https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/drigung_96.

On the history of the Drigung tradition in the region, see Luciano Petech, “The ’Bri-guṅ-pa Sect in Western Tibet and Ladakh,” in Proceedings of the Csoma de Körös Memorial Symposium, ed. Louis Ligeti (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1978), 313–25.

See Nils Martin, “The Wanla Group of Monuments: 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist Murals in Ladakh” (PhD diss., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 2022), 174–77.

On this conquest, see Karl Jahn, “A Note on Kashmīr and the Mongols,” Central Asiatic Journal 2, no. 3 (1956): 180; Brenda W.L. Li, “A Critical Study of the Life of the 13th-Century Tibetan Monk U Rgyan Pa Rin Chen Dpal Based on His Biographies” (PhD diss., University of Oxford, 2011), 207.

On these monuments, see Christian Luczanits, “Beneficial to See: Early Drigung Painting,” in Painting Traditions of the Drigung Kagyu School, ed. David P. Jackson, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 5 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2015), 244–47; Nils Martin, “The Wanla Group of Monuments: 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist Murals in Ladakh” (PhD diss., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 2022).

On this monument, see Peter van Ham, “The Khawaling Chörten: A Unique Sculpted and Painted Mandala at Nyoma, Ladakh,” Orientations 45, no. 5 (June) (2014): 28–40; Quentin Devers, Laurianne Bruneau, and Martin Vernier, “An Archaeological Account of Ten Ancient Painted Chortens in Ladakh and Zanskar,” in Art and Architecture in Ladakh: Cross-Cultural Transmissions in the Himalayas and Karakoram, ed. Erberto Lo Bue and John Bray, Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library 39 (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 122–28. For its connection to Wanla, see Nils Martin, “The Wanla Group of Monuments: 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist Murals in Ladakh” (PhD diss., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 2022), 299–324.

For an example of a mural site continuing some artistic principles of the Wanla group, see Erberto Lo Bue, “The Gu Ru Lha Khang at Phyi Dbang: A Mid-15th Century Temple in Central Ladakh,” in Discoveries in Western Tibet and the Western Himalayas: Essays on History, Literature, Archaelogy and Art. PIATS 2003: Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oxford 2003, ed. Amy Heller and Giacomella Orofino, Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library 8/13 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 175–96. For an extensive discussion on the legacy of the Wanla group in the arts of Ladakh, see Nils Martin, “The Wanla Group of Monuments: 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist Murals in Ladakh” (PhD diss., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 2022), 344–434.