Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries)

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the tibetan himalayan style 127

silk banners found at Dunhuang cave 17. This technique was not found on the

other banners from Dunhuang.13

2.2 The Tibetan Himalayan Style in the Western Borderlands

The style under discussion here can also be found on artefacts across the

Western borderlands of the Yarlung Empire. This geographic area extended

from Gilgit (Palur) in the Northwest through Baltistan, Ladakh, Zangskar,

Lahul, Spiti, upper Kinnaur, Guge, and Purang. The terms used to define this

region changed with time. At the beginning of the Imperial period this region

was part of Zhangzhung (Tib. Zhang zhung). Later this region is referred to in

Tibetan sources as Töd (Tib. sTod)—upper regions (of Ngari, Tib. mNga’ ris)—

and only from the latter part of the tenth century following the rule by the

dynasty of the Kings of Purang-Guge is the region described as Ngari korsum

(Tib. mNga’ ris bskor gsum).14 Examples of this Tibetan Himalayan Style can

be seen in rock carvings. Denwood discussed some early rock carvings with

Tibetan inscriptions but unfortunately could not suggest any precise dating for

these images.15 Comparative art historical analysis demonstrated relationships

between the Dunhuang banners and a large number of rock engravings and

low relief sculptures: the same rigid, flat, two-dimensional figural style that

distinguishes the banners from Dunhuang can also be found in the rock art,

such as in Satpara (Skardu, Baltistan, fig. 4.3)16 and the low relief sculpture at

Naupur (Gilgit) which can be attributed to the ninth century.17

Evidence for a stylistic connection between the paintings from Central Asia

and the West Tibetan stone carvings includes the peculiar stiffness of the flat,

two-dimensional figures that are mostly depicted strictly frontally and stand-

ing. The legs of all the figures are absolutely straight with no joints implied,

resulting in straight tubular legs with feet pointing outwards. Further the

13 Whitfield, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, 62.
14 In course of time, different names were used to identify this area. For a detailed analysis of
these terms see: Wangdu, Pasang, “The mNga’ ris and Nga’ ris smad of the 11th Century,” in
The Cultural History of Western Tibet. Recent Research from the China Tibetology Research
Center and the University of Vienna, ed. Deborah Klimburg-Salter et al. (Vienna, Beijing:
China Tibetology Publishing House, 2008), 297–298. According to Wangdu, “The mNga’
ris,” 297, the three regions of Mang yul, Purang and Guge were first subsumed under the
term Ngari korsum (Tib. mNga’ ris bskor gsum) around the tenth century.
See also Klimburg-Salter, Deborah, “The Tibetan Himalayan Style. The Art of the Western
Domains, 8th–11th Centuries,” 443–492.
15 Denwood, “The Tibetans in the Western Himalayas and Karakoram,” 52.
16 Denwood, “The Tibetans in the Western Himalayas and Karakoram,” 50.
17 For a discussion of this style see Klimburg-Salter, “The Tibetan Himalayan Style,” 443–492.

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