tuis.
(Tuis.)
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The following section of visual transfer includes chapter four, by Linda Lojda,
Deborah Klimburg-Salter and Monica Strinu on the Tibetan Himalayan Style in
Western Tibet, and chapter five, by Rob Linrothe on the origins of the Kashmiri
style in Zangskar and Ladakh. Both case studies from the former periphery of
the Tibetan imperial territory in the Transhimalayan region exemplify appro-
priations of visual Buddhist material and their local developments—in chap-
ter four between the Purang-Guge Kingdom and Dunhuang in the 10th and 11th
centuries and in chapter five between Zangskar and Kashmir between the 7th
to 11th centuries.
In chapter four Linda Lojda, Deborah Klimburg-Salter and Monica Strinu
investigate the paintings of Tabo monastery, founded by the king Lha Lama
Yeshe Ö (Tib. lha bla ma Ye shes ’od, 959–1040) in 996; these were painted in
a style named by the authors Tibetan Himalayan Style, a regional style which
had emerged during the time of the Tibetan Empire with roots in Central
Asia (particularly visible in silk banners from Dunhuang). However, the main
temple, except for the entry hall, was repainted just 46 years later, in 1042, in
the Indo-Tibetan Style prevailing in Kashmir under the guidance of Yeshe Ö’s
grandnephew Jangchub Ö (Tib. Byang chub ’od). The paintings in the entry hall
with an iconographic programme in the ‘old’ style related to Tibetan patron-
age may have been preserved as a tribute to the importance of king Yeshe Ö.
However, from a broader perspective this case study well exemplifies further
results of the disintegration of the three large empires, particularly here the
Tibetan Empire, namely, the move from a regional (Tibetan–Central Asian)
to a more local (and/or neighbour-oriented, Kashmiri) influence in visual arts
and patronage systems. Just as the centre of political and Buddhist culture in
Tibet collapsed, the former periphery reoriented itself as well.
Chapter five by Rob Linrothe explores further how Kashmir as a new refer-
ence point in visual arts gradually emerges in the Transhimalayan region, par-
ticularly after the demise of the Tibetan Empire. Zangskar and Ladakh, further
West of the Purang-Guge Kingdom and an interesting gateway between Tibet
and Kashmir, shared very little with the adjacent Kashmiri culture during the
time of the Tibetan Empire and only gradually borrowed visual idioms from
the then dominant centre of Buddhist learning, Kashmir. The case study pro-
vided by Rob Linrothe focuses on the monumental sculptures of the future
Buddha Maitreya along the routes between Zangskar, Ladakh and Kashmir—
namely in the minor nodes of Dras, Kartsé, Mulbek and Apati—which were
carved probably by itinerant Kashmiri artists who travelled to Zangskar in
search of patronage. These sculptures could loosely function as boundary
markers at the edge of Kashmiri territory, beyond which were independent
local states like Zangskar; the latter was, however, maybe already a feudatory to
