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DECENDER, 1906.)
ARCHÆOLOGY IN WESTERN TIBET.
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331
In January, 1906, I was able to pay two hurried visits to Alohi. On my first visit I was taken to the principal monastery called Namper-nangdsad, the three stories of the building reminding me of the desoription of the Tho-gling monastery in the r Gyalrubs, which is one of Rinchenbzangpo's creations and is said to have three stories. At Alchi the second story is narrower than the first, and the third narrower than the second. Thus the appearance of the whole building is that of pyramid with steps. Arriving in front of the building, the conviction took hold of me that I was in ancient Kashmir, and that the Buddhist monasteries there must have looked exactly like this one. At any rate, I have never seen wooden galleries in Ladakh like those at Alchi. All the woodwork, especially the many columns, were covered with mythological carvings and all the columns, formerly the architraves of the doors, had on the inner sides of their richly-decorated capitals figures of jumping animals, apparently lions stretched forth towards each other. But what reminded me of Kashmir, most of all, were three trefoiled arches under high-pointed gables, exactly like those of the ancient stone temples of that country. On closer inspection it became evident that only the one in the middle was of perfect shape, and that the two on the right and left were rude imitations of it. The middle one contains a wooden statue of Buddha, the one to the right of the spectator) the green Târâ, and the one to the left, Vajrasativa (rDorje-semsdpā). I suppose that these two statues were inserted later on in place of two more ancient ones. All the woodwork was painted red, except the arch of the green Târâ, which was blue, I was full of hope to find here some relics of ancient Kashmiri painting, but I found only pictures which looked as if they had been executed recently. Other certainly modern additions are three high clay-and-wood images of Maitreya.
Besides the large temple, there are two smaller ones in the near neighbourhood. Although they have no galleries, the carving on the wooden doors has an ancient, non-Lamsist look. Inside they showed the traces of recent renovations. One of them contained only a small mchod rten, but in the other was an image of sPyan-ras-yzigs (Avalokitesvara), and an inscription in modern Tibetan Bu-med characters, which may be of some historical value, though, in my disappointment, I forgot to read it.
Not very far from the monastery there is a large tree which looks to me like a silver poplar (it had no leaves when I saw it), which popular tradition asserts to have grown out of Rincbenbzangpo's stick.
I made a second visit to Saspola several days after the first," because I had been told that there were several more temples at Alchi, which I had not been shewn on the previous visit: 80 I once more crossed the Indus on ice, and my gaide took me to some more ecclesiastical buildings called gonpa a little further to the west than the priucipal monastery. Two of the structures attracted my special attention. The first was a mchod-rten of pyramidal shape, the ground plan of which had somewhat the form of a star, and it was quite a new thing to me to find that it contained several rooms, two of which were still in fair preservation. The walls of these rooms were once covered with frescoes of an apparently pre-Lamaist type, but only a few of the pictures had been preserved. The frieze WAB particularly well painted. It consisted of a long procession of geese, marching one after the other. Below the frieze, the roof of a large tent or tents could be seen, and occasional figures of Buddhist saints, naked or with grey garments.
Not very far distant was a temple with its door opening towards east as usual. Its walls were covered with frescoes, many of which had suffered badly, and my guide told me that the children of the village were in the habit of throwing stones at them. I was particularly intereeted in the paintiago on the east wall.. Above the door there was a very fine picture of Gmêsa, and to the right of it were what appeared to be historical paintings, probably representations of the ancient kings of Alchi, all
If No. V. of the LadAkhi Songs published ante, Vol. XXXI., p. 93, refers to this monastery, it would certainly refer to one of these renovations.
I may note here that Dr. F. E. Shawo has discovered meanwhile a very similar mok odrten at Nyoma.
