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Tibet Guge Kingdom Photo Gallery - 2. Tholing

In July and August 2006, we traveled to Dubai, Mount Kailash and Guge Kingdom in Tibet, Muscat, Iceland and a brief stop in London.

Tibet Guge 02 Tholing 01 Town Tholing (3650m, Ch. Zanda), the base for visits to the Guge kingdom, has an incredible location perched against crumbling cliffs high above the Sutlej River, a patch of vivid green among unrelentingly barren canyons.

Tibet Guge 02 Tholing 01 Town

Tibet Guge 02 Tholing 02 Main Street Once a Tibetan town full of nomads, Tholing (3550m, Ch. Zanda) is now a small Chinese military town. Tholing has a wide main street lined with concrete-block shops whose goods tumble into the street.

Tibet Guge 02 Tholing 02 Main Street

Tibet Guge 02 Tholing 03 Telecom Hotel Outside We stayed in the clean comfortable China Telecom Hotel just steps from the Tholing Temple complex. There was a separate set of rooms where we enjoyed a hot shower for the first time in a week.

Tibet Guge 02 Tholing 03 Telecom Hotel Outside

Tibet Guge 02 Tholing 04 Telecom Hotel Inside Here is our clean comfortable room in Tholing’s China Telecom Hotel.

Tibet Guge 02 Tholing 04 Telecom Hotel Inside

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 01 Red Temple Buildings In Front Tholing monastery was built in the eleventh century, during the reign of Yeshe-O, the King of Guge, Western Tibet. It proved a refuge for numerous scholars and translators. It was here that Atisha met Lotsawa Rinchen Sangpo and also where he wrote his seminal text, Lamp of the Path, which has remained an inspiration for generations up to the present day. The monastery, said to have been modeled after Samye in Central Tibet, is noted today for the exquisite quality of the murals that cover its walls. These paintings delightfully express the vigour of the transmission of Buddhism from India to Tibet and the dynamic mingling of cultures. Even after so many centuries, which have seen the abandonment and ruin of the buildings that house them, they retain a freshness that is a joy to see. – Dalai Lama, Foreword: Ewald Hein / Günther Boelmann: Tibet – Der Weiße Tempel von Tholing.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 01 Red Temple Buildings In Front

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 02 Red Temple Outside Tholing's Red Temple (Dukhang) has especially fine wall murals from 15-16C, showing strong Kashmiri and Nepali influences. Here is a side view of the Temple.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 02 Red Temple Outside

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 03 Red Temple Entrance The monk brought us a powerful flashlight to see the paintings inside the Red Temple.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 03 Red Temple Entrance

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 04 Red Temple Many Images Along the left hand wall are floor-to-ceiling rows of deities entwined in wreath-like borders each interleaving into a whole organic complex across the entire space. Photo - Thöni: Westtibet.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 04 Red Temple Many Images

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 05 White Temple Outside Tholing's 15C White Temple (Lhakhang Karpo) is a large hall whose walls are covered with splendid paintings dating back to 15-16C. Luckily this building was not destroyed by the Chinese during the Cultural Revolution, as it was used as a storage room for grain and other supplies.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 05 White Temple Outside

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 06 White Temple Entrance Door The entry to Tholing's White Temple is marked by two interesting deodar (cedar) columns originating in India, probably 500 years old. Along the left and right walls of Tholing’s White Temple are murals depicting a series of male and female bodhisattvas. Over three metres high, some of them are represented within a formal aureole, others within a celestial palace, and yet others in a natural landscape setting of mountains and forests.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 06 White Temple Entrance Door

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 07 White Temple 05 Vajravidarana On the left wall is a painting of Vajravidarana, a purification deity who holds a double vajra in her right hand and an upside down bell with a similar handle in her left hand at her hip. Photo - Hein/Boelmann: Tibet – Der Weiße Tempel von Tholing.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 07 White Temple 05 Vajravidarana

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 08 White Temple 03 Padmapani On the left wall is a painting of Padmapani (Lotus-Bearer), one of oldest forms of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion. The right hand makes the gesture of giving while the left signifies teaching. Padmapani is identified by the lotus flower above his left shoulder, with the stem held in his left hand. Photo - Hein/Boelmann: Tibet – Der Weiße Tempel von Tholing.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 08 White Temple 03 Padmapani

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 09 White Temple 11 Tara Pedestal At the far right corner is an empty pedestal that used to contain a statue of Tara. Here is a recent photo showing one of Tara’s arms on the pedestal, serving witness to the Chinese destruction far better than any words can convey. Photo - Kazuyoshi Nomachi: Tibet.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 09 White Temple 11 Tara Pedestal

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 10 White Temple 15 Prajnaparamita On the right wall is this splendid painting of Prajnaparamita, the female deity who personifies wisdom. She holds a rosary in her left hand and a book in her right. Her other left hand is in her lap in the mudra of meditation. Photo - http://www.asianart.com/articles/heimsath/5.html.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 10 White Temple 15 Prajnaparamita

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 11 White Temple 16 Sitatapattra Sitatapatra, meaning The Victorious White Parasol, is a form of Tara, a female counterpart of Avalokiteshvara. Her parasol indicates her ability to protect sentient beings from natural catastrophes and diseases. Photo - Hein/Boelmann: Tibet – Der Weiße Tempel von Tholing.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 11 White Temple 16 Sitatapattra

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 12 White Temple 16 Sitatapattra Knee Closeup Some of the painting details are extraordinary, including the knee of Sitatapatra. Photo - Hein/Boelmann: Tibet – Der Weiße Tempel von Tholing.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 12 White Temple 16 Sitatapattra Knee Closeup

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 13 White Temple 17 Parnasabari Parnasabari is an emanation of Tara that is golden in colour with three faces and six arms. Her power helps overcome plagues and epidemics. Those who suffer from incurable conditions can still benefit from her blessings. Photo - Hein/Boelmann: Tibet – Der Weiße Tempel von Tholing.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 13 White Temple 17 Parnasabari

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 14 White Temple 18 Sarasvati Sarasvati, playing a lute, embodies artistic achievement in music, poetry and the arts. Photo - Thöni: Westtibet.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 14 White Temple 18 Sarasvati

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 15 Yeshe O Temple Outside The structure of Tho.ling gtsug.leg.khang (Yeshe O's Mandala Chapel), laid out at its foundation in the year of the monkey 996, remained practically unchanged for over nine and half centuries until its destruction (during the Cultural Revolution). Roberto Vitali: Records of Tho.ling.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 15 Yeshe O Temple Outside

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 16 Yeshe O Temple Outside Side The two structures ... which composed the main temple (i.e. the inner cruciform building, conceived as four wings departing in the four directions from a central core … and the surrounding enclosure ...) in the shape of the citadel of the mandala were joined together by means of a roofed area, the internal of walls of which were covered with murals. Roberto Vitali: Records of Tho.ling.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 16 Yeshe O Temple Outside Side

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 17 Yeshe O Chorten Towering above each of the four corners of Yeshe O's Mandala Chapel complex are the only stupas of the Indian prasada style in existence. They are also uncommon in being made up of terracotta, since most Tibetan stupas are made from mud and stone.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 17 Yeshe O Chorten

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 18 Yeshe O Temple Inside Kora The entrance is now a small museum. After passing the empty pedestals, we walked the inner kora between the outer and inner walls.

Tibet Guge 03 Tholing 18 Yeshe O Temple Inside Kora

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 01 Chorten 1 Outside the enclosure, at the four angles, but at unequal distances are four great Labab chorten, that is to say chorten which carry on their four sides four staircases; they commemorate, according to the Indo-Tibetan tradition, the ascent of Buddha to the Tusita paradise, when he went to preach the gospel there to his mother, already ascended there after his earthly death. - Giuseppi Tucci: Secrets of Tibet (September 19, 1933)

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 01 Chorten 1

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 02 Chorten 1 Top Closeup A few steps east of the Tholing Monastery compound is the recently restored Serkhang Lhabab chorten. Here is a close-up of the top of the chorten.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 02 Chorten 1 Top Closeup

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 03 Chorten 1 Rock Carving A broken rock carving lies against the side of the recently restored Serkhang Chorten, showing the Guge style with a slender torso and thin waist.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 03 Chorten 1 Rock Carving

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 04 108 Chorten Between the Tholing Monastery compound and the cliff face that falls away to the Sutlej River below, are two long lines of miniature chortens. These 108 chortens are slowly going back to the earth from which they came.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 04 108 Chorten

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 05 108 Chorten Pilgrims I watched pilgrims perform their kora of the Tholing complex, circling these large stupas, which are literally falling down the cliff into the Sutlej river.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 05 108 Chorten Pilgrims

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 06 108 Chorten Tsa Tsa We walked along the crumbling stupas that line the cliff above the Sutlej River at Tholing, looking in the holes for Tsa-tsas, and we found one! Despite being only around 10cm in size, the attention to detail of the palm-pressed votive images is remarkable. Tsa-tsas include not only a perfect figure of a deity but a depiction of the appropriate mantra or tiny stupas in the background. Such objects are added to the core of any large stupa to enhance its sanctity and power.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 06 108 Chorten Tsa Tsa

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 07 Chorten 2 A few steps north west of the Tholing Monastery compound next to the cliff, is a second chorten.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 07 Chorten 2

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 08 Chorten 3 Just to the west of the Tholing Monastery compound is a third chorten.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 08 Chorten 3

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 09 Chorten 4 To the south-west of the Tholing Monastery compound is the fourth chorten, supposedly containing the relics of Rinchen Zangpo.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 09 Chorten 4

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 10 Chorten 4 Kalachakra Rock Carving Standing against the fourth chorten is this rock carving called Tenfold Powerful One, symbolizing the Kalachakra Tantra.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 10 Chorten 4 Kalachakra Rock Carving

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 11 South Ruins … the ruins on the slopes and the summit of the clayey mountains which dominate the great gompas on the south … (is) the summer residence of the monks. - Giuseppi Tucci: Secrets of Tibet (September 20, 1933)

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 11 South Ruins

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 12 Chorten 1 Rainbow Bathed in an evening rainbow is the Serkhang chorten.

Tibet Guge 04 Tholing 12 Chorten 1 Rainbow


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