172 linrothe
At one time the Kartsé Maitreya must have been visible from across the val-
ley. The fact that it has not been severely tampered with or vandalised is a
testament to the fact that it has been screened off, and to the tolerance of the
local villagers. It would have been seen by the many travellers from Zangskar
who travelled via Rangdum to Kashmir, Baltistan, and Ladakh, including the
Zangskari merchants who carried on the trade in salt, for as Drew pointed out
some of “the salt acquired [in Zangskar] from Rupshu goes to Surū, whence
comes in exchange pattū (woolen cloth), barley, and a little cash”.43 Along the
way, they would no doubt stop and offer prostrations to a remarkable manifes-
tation of Buddhist compassion.
4 Mulbek
We turn next to the most prominent of the Kashmiri rock-cut standing
Maitreya in Western Ladakh and Zangskar: the Mulbek four-armed Maitreya
(figs. 5.13–5.18).44 The two-armed Kartsé Maitreya (fig. 5.6) is certainly related
in many respects to the four-armed Mulbek future-Buddha, even if the sug-
gestion that they are “almost identical” is putting it too strongly.45 Among the
similarities are the use of large round beads for the decoration of the belts,
armlets, necklaces and other jewellery, a rosette or flower-head medallion at
the belt (fig. 5.14), the formation of the abdomen around the navel, the puffi-
ness of the face and scored lower lip (fig. 5.15), the peculiar bend of the ringed
index finger while holding the kuṇḍikā (fig. 5.16), the plainness of the surface
of the vanamālā, and the raised kneecaps. There are just as many differences,
however, starting with the fact that it is a four-armed Maitreya at Mulbek who
does not wear a crown. His hair is instead arranged in a symmetrical “butterfly
jaṭā [twist of hair]”46 on either side of the high chignon bearing a Kashmiri-
style stūpa with a small, rounded aṇḍa (dome) above a stepped terrace with
staircase, and a ten- or eleven-level chhatravālī (stack of umbrella-like disks)
above the outward slanting supports of the harmikā (platform with railing
above the dome) (fig. 5.15). The hair is pulled back in strands, but two spiral
curls adorn the high layer of hair at the centre. In its arrangement, the hair is
strikingly similar to that of the ca. sixth-century Śiva Mahādeva from Fattegarh,
43 Drew, Jummoo and Kashmir, 284.
44 A GPS reading for the sculpture at Mulbek is N 34° 22.728’; E 076° 22.004’; alt. 10,839’.
45 Snellgrove et al., Zangskar, 9.
46 Pal, Pratapaditya, “An Addorsed Śaiva Image from Kashmir and Its Cultural Significance,”
Art International 24.5–6 (1981): 20.