Images of Dzongsar Institute in North India. The murals painted on the walls at the entrance of the main temple are of interest because they depict both the new Temple in India and the original Dzongsar Monastery in Kham, Tibet. On another section of wall are King Gesar and several attendant figures along with a quote from the Manjushri Namasangiti Tantra which Khyentse Chokyi Lodro believed was phrophetic and heralding the coming of Gesar to Tibet.

The Temple Door of Mindrolling Monastery, India, is a wonderful example of both metal work and design with intricate detailing, mythical animals and a medallion depicting the story of the Four Harmonious Friends.

Several hundred photos of Wutaishan Mountain in China have been uploaded to the HAR website. They are not art photos per se but rather snap shots of some of the important stupas, temples, sculpture and sight locations. The mountain with its five terraces (peaks) and the narrative relating to the Mahayana bodhisattva and Tantric figure Manjushri are important in the art of the Himalayas, Tibet, Nepal, China and Mongolia.

In the center of the vast pilgrimage site, in the principal valley is a large white stupa constructed by the famous Nepalese artist Aniko, also responsible for the White Stupa in Beijing. In the recorded literature it also states that Chogyal Pagpa himself assisted in the physical construction of the stupa - all during the time of Kublai Khan in the Yuan dynasty. It would be a huge task to document and photograph all of the major and minor sites at Wutaishan and likely take more than a week to conduct a traditional pilgrimage even with the use of a motor vehicle.

Over the next few months the images of the various sites will be divided into thematic pages accompanied by identifications and explanations wherever possible.

The Lhasa Main Page and Lhasa Outline Page have been updated. The principal locations are the Potala Palace including the Lukang, the Tsuglakang (Jokang), Barkor Temples, Temples in Lhasa outside of the Barkor, temples on the outer edges of Lhasa - such as Drepung, Sera, Drolma Lhakang, etc. The temples can also be catagorized from the earliest such as the temple on Marpori (inside the Potala), the Tsuglakang and Ramoche up to the latest such as Drashi Lakang.

Aniko, originally known as Barub (or Balabahu), 1244-1306, is said to have been born in a Nepalese royal household descended from the Shakya family of Lumbhini and the historical Buddha - Shakyamuni. The name Aniko is said to come from the name Araniko given to him by Chogyal Pagpa, a name in some way thought to be related to the protector deity Panjarnata Mahakala. Between 1259 and 1264 eighty craftsmen and artists journeyed from the Kathmandu Valley to Sakya, Tibet, to construct a golden stupa. Aniko was the leader of the group. After recieving monastic ordination, in 1269 Aniko traveled with Chogyal Pagpa to Dadu (Beijing) to meet with Kublai Khan. In 1271 Aniko began constructing the White Stupa 'for the preservation of the country'. In 1274 it was filled and consecrated by Chogyal Pagpa and Rinchen Gyaltsen - the brother of Pagpa. On October 25th, 1279, the stupa was officially completed. After completion a monastery was immediately built around the stupa. After ten years the temple and monastery were finished and named Dashengshou Wan'an Monastery becoming the principal place of Buddhist worship for the Mongol Lords.

Aniko was also renowned for constructing other buildings and monasteries under the command of Kublai along with 191 statues of Taoist saints. In 1302 the famous White Stupa of Mount Wutaishan, special for Manjushri, was also constructed by Aniko on top of and around an existing famous pagoda built centuries earlier. Chogyal Pagpa is also said to have contributed to the physical labour of the construction and to first associate the five peaks, or terraces, with the Five Forms of Manjushri. Of the 40 years that Aniko spent in China 13 of those years were at Wutaishan Mountain. Aniko passed away at the age of 62 in the Imperial Palace in Dadu.

Aniko is primarily remembered for his architectural achievements and for the creation of sculpture objects. A painting of the Emperor and Empress have been attributed to him in the literary records. The two known remaining works are the White Stupa in Beijing and the Stupa at Wutaishan Mountain. Modern scholars are not in agreement concerning any other monuments, paintings or sculpture. (See article on Araniko Gallery).

The village of Tsarang is just south of the walled town of Lo Monthang, the capital of the Kingdom of Mustang in North Western Nepal. The village of Tsarang (Charang) has numerous stupa structures, a monastery (gompa) and a fortress (dzong). The monastery is made up of several buildings and structures. Some are in the process of being renovated and others are in a state of serious disrepair. The inner walls of the main temple are painted with murals depicting the deities of the Medicine Buddha mandala. They have recently been cleaned and restored. It has been suggested by some local informants that depictions and rituals of Medicine Buddha are a special object of devotion in the Kingdom of Mustang and can be found in the temples of almost every Mustang village.

By far one of the most interesting buildings in the small walled monastic complex is located at the back of the property, looking like nothing but a ruin, almost falling over a cliff. The structure is referred to locally as the Ani Gompa, or Ani Lhakang (nunnery). Navigating the only entrance, a set of small wooden double doors, flanked by a Wheel of Life and murals of the Four Guardian Kings, arriving inside, it is imediately noticable that the roof has large gaping holes, numerous rafters with blue sky behind. The floor is an uneven surface of mud and dirt and the entire place seems like it could collapse at any momenent. Yet despite all of that, the inner walls are completely decorated with brightly coloured murals, some of which appear to have been cleaned and restored in very recent years. It is like an oasis of colour and palacial grandeur, unexpected, awesome and immediately comforting and strangely well grounded, stable and solid.

The inner layout of the room, clearly a temple or shrine room of some sort, is not completely typical. The main inner wall at the front of the room (across from the door) has a large depiction of the Buddha Vajradhara, the primordial Buddha, surrounded by the lineage teachers of the Sakya Lamdre - based on the Hevjra Tantra and teachings of the Indian mahasiddha Virupa (depicted with six different forms in the murals of the main temple). On the viewer's left hand side is a very large painting of Padmasambhava surrounded by a Nyingma lineage. On the right side of the room is a large painting of a Drugpa Kagyu teacher surrounded by a Drugpa Kagyu lineage. The side walls of the room appear to depict the Five Symbolic Buddhas accompanied by smaller buddhas representing the One Thousand Buddhas of the Age. To the immediate right and left of the entrance are protector deities of the Sakya Tradition on one side and protectors of the Drugpa Kagyu Tradition of the other side.

Despite being called an Ani Gompa, the structure is more likely to be a Lamdre Lhakang or a building created for use during the Monastic Summer Retreat - and later painted. As a backdrop to the monastery, on the steep cliff sides of the valley surrounding the village are evidence of extensive cave dwellings both for religious as well as secular use. Only some of these caves are accessible, most are not. Only a small percentage of the caves have been explored by trained climbers and cultural specialists. 

Tsarang Village
Main Temple
Ani Lhakang
Village Fortress (Dzong)

Seeing, Rather Than Looking At, Nepalese Art: The Figural Struts by Mary Shepherd Slusser, December 18, 2009. Asianart.com

This article is drawn from the important discoveries revealed in the author's forthcoming The Antiquity of Nepalese Wood Carving: A Reassessment, which is now in press. The article does not repeat the critical apparatus which can be found in the book, so the reader is urged to seek, if needed, further references and citations from the book. The Editor, Asianart.com

The main Sakya Outline Page has been re-worked. Added to this at the bottom, as you already saw, is the Sakya Protectors Outline Page. Linked to that is a new outline page for Panjarnata Mahakala. There is still more work to be done on that subject. Also new to the Sakya Outline Page is the Monasteries & Branch Schools outline. This new page will become more meaningful and develop as more images are uploaded in the next few weeks and months. We currently have several thousand images from locations in Central and West Tibet waiting to be uploaded.

The Mural Paintings of Tibet outline became way too large and had to be split into several pages: main page, Eastern Tibet (Kham, Amdo), Central Tibet, Western Tibet. More mural images and new locations are ready to be uploaded to the HAR site. These outline pages will probably have to change again soon to accommodate all of the new images.

With the Mural Paintings of Tibet page there are also many outside shots of the buildings and caves that house the murals. In an attempt to simplify the topic of architecture the important subjects and types have been grouped together on the Architecture Outline Page. This will need to be re-worked as the technical vocabulary and terms are sorted out and standardized.