the tibetan himalayan style 145
associated with local Tibetan patronage. A recent study demonstrates that the
Tibetan Himalayan Style was patronised by Tibetans during the same period
and that, in the same region, that other patrons donated Buddhist images in
Kashmiri style associated with Śāradā inscriptions.51 Yeshe Ö’s efforts to re-
import Mahāyāna Buddhism from Kashmir began to succeed in the beginning
of the eleventh century. Rinchen Zangpo’s (Tib. Rin chen bzang po, 958–1055
according to his biography—but these dates are highly debated)52 biography
tells us that he brought artists, manuscripts and religious objects from Kashmir
to the Western Tibetan borderland. Appropriately, from that time on, the art
of Western Tibet began to integrate Kashmiri influence, as can be seen in
the paintings and sculptures of temples in the area. The representation of the
Buddhist saṅgha, the noble donors, and the princely patron depict a totally
new social order originating in Central Tibet. The highly structured social hier-
archy reflects the ecclesiastical estate formed by Yeshe Ö and strengthened by
his descendants. There is neither a trace of the local styles nor of the composi-
tion’s preferences, which served to depict a more egalitarian distribution of
power, as seen in the Phase I programme painted in the Tibetan Himalayan
Style.53
The economic affluence of West Tibet under the reign of the kings of Purang
Guge is reflected in the high quality of the arts of the Tabo assembly hall attrib-
uted to the Renovation Period, as well as the eleventh to twelfth century tem-
ples from Nako village in Kinnaur.
Both the Tibetan Himalayan Style and the regional customs depicted in the
art, such as dress, disappear without a trace. The few remaining monuments
discussed here are the only surviving witnesses to a period in history when
diverse Tibetan groups, with slightly different cultural traditions inhabited an
extended area from Gilgit to Purang, and parts of Central Asia.
In the absence of contemporaneous written histories, this narrative―
from the genesis of the style to its obliteration―is most clearly understood
through the visual media. As we have seen, during the imperial expansion into
Central Asia, Tibetan communities settled all along the routes and in several
of the Central Asian oases. During this period a regional style emerged with
roots in Central Tibet but a distinctive Central Asian character. Following
the dissolution of the empire and the economic instability and political
51 Klimburg-Salter, “The Tibetan Himalayan Style,” 465.
52 Regarding the dates of Rinchen Zangpo see Petech, “Western Tibet,” 234. He dates Rinchen
Zangpoʼs last trip to Kashmir to the first quarter of the eleventh century.
53 See Klimburg-Salter, “Imagining the world of Ye shes ’od”.