本站原创After entering the Ngari Highland our archeological team, which was following the Langchen Zangbo River, was gradually approaching the border between India and China, step by step. The name of one local village after another fl ashed before my eyes: Sibyi, Mayang, Gurang, Buling…and so on. I soon learned that we were about to arrive at our destination.
This area is known for its altitude drop: the maximum height is about 3700 to 4100 meters at the peak of the Sino-India boundary mountain from the bottom of the 3000-meter valley of Langchen Zangbo. The source of the Langchen Zangbo River is the County of Gar in Tibet and it flows over the border at the Village of Sibyi into Kashmir (the region occupied by India) to become the headwater of the Indus River. Outside the window, the trees in the Langchen Zangbo River valley grow luxuriously in a valley so steep it is as if carved out by a huge knife. In summer there is exuberant growth everywhere in the villagers’ fi elds. Crops and economic plants like highland barley, peas, round roots, apricot and apple trees are growing on large or all natural tablelands - which he been formed on an alluvial fan on the valley. The scenery changes as the height increases: in the warm, temperate zone at about 3000 meters the foliage is a mixture of needle pine and broad leaf. In the sub-mountainous Frigid Zone above 3900 to 5000 meters, shrubs are subject to snow all year round. Generally, our archaeological fi eldwork is mainly carried out around where there are signs of ancient human activity (from 3000 to 3900 meters is where most archaic relics are found).
After setting out from the County of Zangda and after nearly 11 hours’ drive, my team fi nally arrived at the Village of Diyag before sunset. While my colleagues were busy unloading food and equipment from the car, I went to the township government offi ces to ask for help - expecting that they would arrange accommodation for us though we had arrived without hing them informed ahead of time. Mr. Zhang, Chief of the town, received us hospitably. He was from Henan Province and had served in the army as a frontier soldier for three years. When he fulfilled his military service, he volunteered to stay and join in working locally instead of returning home. Later, he joined the University of Tibet to major in Economy Management. As he graduated from the college, he ran for the position of Chief of Diyag and succeeded. Getting to know our needs, he offered us two empty staff houses to sleep overnight. About ten of us crowded into the two houses and went to bed after a quick meal.
The next morning, I opened my eyes to the joyful twitter of birdsong. Walking out of the door and taking a deep breath, the air elt of grass as I looked over the hamlet hidden in this valley on the Sino-India border. The Himalayas surrounded the village like a maiden locked in her boudoir. The waters of Langchen Zangbo beat on its banks as it fl owed west. On both sides of the river there are crop fields in patches on the tableland. These blocks of green made a strong contrast with the huge lead-grey mountains adorned with thick woods in the valley - typical natural scenery in the mountainous highlands.
Our mission this time was to explore archaeological relics related to Master Rinchen Zangpo; a well-known Guge translator from the early Guge Kingdom. According to the narrative in the Biography of Master Rinchen Zangpo, a Tibetan history was created in Diyag. He had also built a special shrine called the Raknyi Lhakhang. It is said that Master Rinchen Zangpo invited all local deities into the shrine as guardians of Buddhi after he defeated them. The book also says that there had been three treasures of Rinchen Zangpo times buried in the shrine: an ivory statue of Bodhisattva, a statue of Hevajra and a supreme Tantrayana Sanskrit Patra Scripture. To what extent do this story and the historical records conform to reality? My experience in Tibetan archaeological research told me that generally the glorious history in books and other records differed a lot from actual proof.
After a camp breakfast we started out for the object of our research: the Raknyi Lhakhang, the ancient monastery in the valley. It lies on one side of the river, opposite to where the township government of Diyag is located. Hing gone through a grel flood plain, we came to a rope bridge. The surface of the bridge consisted of only a few canes, swaying about as the water under it rushed by. All my team members he experienced such dangers many times on the highlands, so they walked on this frail surface as easily as on f irm earth. Across the river, a few more miles along from the f lood plain at the foot of the mountain, we found there was no exit ahead, so we climbed up the mountain and along a cliff. After two hours’ of climbing, we were able to see the red and white roof of the monastery on a distant flood plain, within the green fi eld of the valley. Thetableland lies in a triangular valley formed by the main stream and one of the branches of Langchen Zangbo. The monastery is at the altitude of 3100 meters and is surrounded by modern residences and the crop fields of the Tibetan villagers who are growing highland barley, apricots, poplars and other crops, shrubs and trees.
Before reaching the Raknyi Lhakhang, the gate caught my eye; it was so impressive that took me by surprise and even set my heart racing. It had a rectangular wooden frame and lintel in front of the gateway that opened into the facade. The upper and two sides of the frame are set into the wall, and the bottom has a wood and stone threshold. The most exciting thing is that the woodcarvings on the lintel bear the typical characteristics of sculptures from earlier Guge times. The frame and lintel he three layers in total, each indented upon the next. The outermost layer is decorated with lotus designs on each of the two long sides, engred in the middle with a chain of honeysuckle tendrils. From the bottom to the threshold, a square with a lotus is drawn as a boundary mark. The long sides of the second layer are decorated with a line of lotus and a string of foliage - also engred with a chain of honeysuckle in the middle and bottom. On the edge a square with a lotus is drawn as a boundary mark. Each of the two long sides of the third layer has a rectangle as its boundary mark in the middle, engred with a chain of honeysuckle. Its original boundary mark from the bottom to the threshold is a square with a lotus inside which was broken when the gate was repaired and a wooden sill inserted. As one of the wood constructional elements in the early monasteries, carvings on the lintel and frame are very simple and primitive. Even so, the gate is not an ancient relic, since it has been replaced in more recent times.
To compare by means of archaeological typology, similar wood lintel and frames to those of Raknyi Lhakhang he been discovered in some shrines of Lhakhang Mapu (the Red Shrine), Gyinkar Lhakhang(the Mandala Shrine) in the ruins of Zarang, capital of the Kingdom of Guge near today’s Ngari. Besides, the Austrian scholar, Chrisitian Luczanits, has mentioned that Early Buddhist Wood Carvings from Himachal Pradesh, wood carvings on the early lintels of the Toling Monastery, Khorchak Monastery, some other monasteries of the Guge Times in our country, the artistic remains of the early Buddhist wood carvings found in Spiti and Kinnaur valleys, regions of Himachal Pradesh occupied by India, around the upstream area of the Indus River to Ngari in Tibet Autonomous Region, …all embody the same style, period and time features as those in the Raknyi Lhakhang. Therefore, Luczanits concluded that works found in the shrines mentioned above were all created at the beginning of the Guge Kingdom (the period from 11th to 13th century). Carvings in the same style on lintels and frames he also been found in the central shrine on the ground floor of the J okhang Temple from the period of Tubo in the Tang Dynasty. Our local scholars he tried to find
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their connections, believing that if we compare the constructional wood carvings in the early Guge Kingdom with those of the same kind in the J okhang Temple, Lhasa, during the Tubo period, it is not diffi cult to fi nd that there exists a clear relationship between them, especially in the reliefs of sutra tales on the lintel and frame of Lhakhang Mapu in the Guge Palace, whose characteristics resemble those in the monasteries mentioned above. We can say that from the Tubo Kingdom, no other area but Guge had kept so many traditions in wood carving in Tibet. Hence, it can be roughly inferred that the wood frame and lintel in the Raknyi Lhakhang was probably made in the earlier age of the Guge Kingdom from 11th to 13th century. As the Kingdom of Tubo collapsed, such simple and archaic carvings are not easily found in the hinterland of Tibet. It is out of our consideration that in this all valley of remote west Tibet, such valuable relics he been preserved so well until today.On the one hand I observed the floor layout of the whole of Lhakhang, and on the other hand, I sent my team to take notes and do mapping and surveying. Entering the main shrine ge us a surprise that no words can express other than joy.
A flat stone structure, the Raknyi Lhakhang has a cross as its basic fl oor plan. All shrines in it are not big, being mainly used for Buddha worship. These are exactly the layout features of the earlier Tibetan monasteries. The gateway of the shrine is 1.52 meters wide and 2.2 meter long. On its left there is an earthen altar, a red Guardian Buddha with three faces and six arms molded above it, and frescos of the later period painted on the back wall. The right side fi nds neither earthen altar nor sculptures but frescos of a later period. The floor plan of the main hall protrudes, about 7.1 meters wide and 6.7 meters deep. Four pillars stand in the center of the shrine, and on top of them, there are supporting timbers, and on the timber there are beams, and on the beams there are rafters. In the middle of the north ceiling a patio is open to the daylight. In the hall, there is an earthen platform a little left of the center with a ninelayer tower above it.
What surprised me most was that the clay statues preserved in the shrine are in good conditions with original fi gures and appearances. On the back wall (the south wall) there is lying Buddha on a bed of 5.1 meters long, 0.6 meters wide, and 1 meter high. Seven statues are placed on the bed, all in the attire of a Bodhisattva. Among them, the middle five face south and the other two face opposite ways to each other (west and east). All fi ve middle statues he three faces and six arms, sitting cross-legged. The higher red one in the very middle sits on a single layer lotus base. The others sit on a double reversed lotus base. Under the base of the red Buddha, a 0.4-meter high platform is laid, painted with lions of green manes. From their figures and the combination, we can infer that they are the Five Dhyani Buddha’s, the yellow Buddha of Padmasambhatathāgata, the blue Buddha of Aksobhyabuddha, the white Buddha of Vairocanabuddha, the red Buddha of Amitabuddha, and the green Buddha of Amoghasiddhi. From left to right, their colorings are the following: the first one is yellow with three faces of blue, yellow and red; the second one is blue whose faces are white, blue and red; the middle one is red whose faces are blue, red and white; the fourth one is white whose faces are blue, white and red; the fi fth one is green whose faces are blue, green and red.
On looking closely, we discover that the hue of the fi ve statues is very bright. Obviously, they are not in their original state but he been re-painted in later times.
On the wall, a meter higher than where the statues are sitting, are another two Buddhas. The left one is white, one face and six arms, a corolla on his head, an Inner Eye on the forehead, playfully seating on the double reversed lotus base. The right one is in brown, one face and four arms, a corolla on its head, an Inner Eye on the forehead, two legs slanting over the base.
Although the nine clay statues had possibly been removed or damaged a lot in later times, they are still distinct in their prominent traits presented in the earlier carvings (which make it possible to contrast with the sculptures in the Gathering Shrine of the Tabo Monastery in the valley of Himasher Pungsedridig, India). Tabo is an ancient monastery built during the times of the Translator Rinchen Zangpo whose gathering hall still preserves clay sculptures of the 11th century. The clay sculptures in both resemble each other a lot in modeling - such as a full and round face, thick shoulders, strong breasts and bellies. Besides, there are other similarities in embellishments and details, especially the Buddhas’ headdresses, both with penta-corolla on triangular petals. In the front layer, every two petals form a semi-circle like a crescent moon. Such patterns are common in the frescos and metal fi guring of the 11th century in West Tibet. For example, above the right back wall of the Raknyi Lhakhang, a statue wears a fl owing silk belt tied in a knot over his breast. The same design is also found on the metal statues of the 11th century in West Tibet. Meanwhile, the combination and modeling of the Five Dhyani Buddhas with multiple faces and arms are also found in frescos of the Raknyi Lhakhang on west wall of the gathering hall in the Monastery of Tabo and of the Raknyi Lhakhang on north wall of Khartsenye Lhakhang in the county of Zangda, Ngari of Tibet. Though the Five Dhyani Buddhas in the Raknyi Lhakhang all he three faces and six arms, the color of their three faces conforms to that of the Five Dhyani Buddhas in the Mandala of the Monastery of Tabo and Nyelhakhang in some part. Considering all factors above, we can draw the conclusion that the sculptures sed in the shrine of the Raknyi Lhakhang are very likely the relics left over from an earlier time when the monastery was built, then only partially revised or repainted in later times.
Reckoning that there must he been other frescos at different times in the shrine, my team and I looked carefully for traces of the earlier paintings under the thick soot and later paintings. The work was as hard as seeking a needle in the ocean. Concerning the layout, woodcarvings and clay sculptures all he earlier constructional patterns. It was reasonable to seek ancient frescos here, so we went on gazing at the wall - little by little and making records intensively. Though it was long after lunch time, we forgot food and water.
Our efforts finally proved to be worthwhile. In the afternoon, a all patch overlapped by pictures of a middle period was discovered in the right corner in the west side of the north wall, which was only 40×60 cm in area. The color of the discovered area is bright, mainly in red and black. On the painting, it can be seen that a man offers a dark alms bowl with his two arms to a red-robed master statue on his left. Under him there is a red ox and a tri-legged altar. The same dark alms bowl is on the altar. Under the ox there are two rows of words, but too broken to be recognized. Soon, another patch, maybe also an earlier painting, was found at the cross on the west wall of the shrine. The surface dye peels out and the drawing is too mottled to be defi ned, yet, we can still outline the figures of five Buddhas, three of which are in red lapelled robe, black boots, the typical dress of royal masters in the earlier Guge Kingdom. We believe that these pictures are possibly the most ancient frescos preserved in the Raknyi Lhakhang, painted about the 11th century, the very beginning when the monastery was built.
A busy day had brought us important fruits. It was the first time for Chinese scholars to carry out an overall archaeological research on the Raknyi Lhakhang since G. Tucci, (an Italian scholar) did it in the thirties of last century. No one would believe that in such a all Lhakhang on the boundary of India and China preserved so many cultural relics of the earlier Guge, offering valuable archaeological material in all aspects of architecture, painting, sculpture and models for the earlier Guge Buddhi art research, especially on art style in the times of Master Rinchen Zangpo.
The sun was setting so it was time for us to say goodbye to the Raknyi Lhakhang, the famous monastery of Guge Times. On the mountain road back to our camp, my team and I couldn’t help stopping to look at it silently, again and again, blessing her in our hearts.