Bsam yas is replaced by movement along an axis. Height is
however used to differentiate the mural paintings of the in-
ternal walls, which cover historical and narrative themes
lower down and iconic subjects higher up. The flat roof of
the chamber is supported in the usual fashion by wooden col-
umns to leave a central space suitable for the communal ritu-
als of the monks. This practical requirement henceforth very
commonly dictates the form of the Tibetan temple chamber.
Conceptually it can be seen as both a man:d:ala, housing a
conventional set of divine images, and as a viha ̄ra, with the
images represented as statues or paintings looking into a cen-
tral space from the sides, and the main image at the far end
opposite the entrance. Both types of plan are sanctioned in
the Tibetan Buddhist scriptures: the viha ̄ra mainly in the
Vinaya texts of monastic discipline, and the man:d:ala in the
Tantras. Details of the carpentry recall styles from lower
down the Himalayan valleys, from whence most of the tim-
ber probably came.
While the assembly hall at Alchi in present-day Ladakh
(India) resembles the main temple of Tabo, the Sumtsek or
temple of three diminishing stories there reworks some of the
themes touched upon above. Of uncertain date, perhaps
eleventh to twelfth century, it is of man:d:ala-like plan with
four projections, one of them occupied by the entrance
porch and the other three- by four-meter high stucco images
of bodhisattvas whose heads project above the ceiling into the
gallery of the next story. The small central space is occupied
by a stupa: too small for communal worship it was used like
a few others of its type for individual Tantric initiations. Just
as remarkable as the plan and elevation of the temple are its
paintings, which cover the entire inner surface in luxuriant
profusion. As at Bsam yas and Tabo, symbolic use is made
of height, with more mundane scenes and subjects below,
more transcendental ones above. Carpentry details at Alchi
strongly resemble those in the architecture of the Kashmir
Valley (now surviving only in stone), whence some of the
craftsmen are known to have traveled.
TRANSITION: SHALU. The temple compound of Shalu near
Shigatse in south-central Tibet illustrates the transition from
the style of the second spreading of Buddhism to the mature
style, sometimes called the Dge lugs (Geluk) pa style, which
had evolved by the fifteenth to sixteenth century and contin-
ues to this day.
The original temples at Shalu, from the early eleventh
century, comprised a pair of single windowless chambers
sharing a party wall and known as the “twin chapels,” whose
ceilings are each supported by four wooden columns remark-
able in this period for their height, about six meters. They
faced across what was presumably an open space toward a
two-story temple, nowadays made up of a chamber traversed
by the main entrance passage, with a chapel devoted to the
goddess of wisdom (Prajña ̄pa ̄ramita ̄). The capitals and brack-
eting between the columns and ceilings of all these early tem-
ples show interesting experiments that bring together ele-
ments of both Chinese- and Indian-derived carpentry.
In the late thirteenth century, additional single-story
temples were constructed along the sides of the compound
to create an enclosed central courtyard. This paved the way
for a complete transformation of the complex in the early
fourteenth century, made possible by the connections of the
local princes with the hierarchs of the nearby principality of
Sa skya (Sakya), who had been appointed viceroys of Tibet
by the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty of China. Lavish patronage
was available in the form of financing and the services of
mural painters, carpenters, and tile-makers sent from China.
The painters were from an imperial atelier set up some dec-
ades earlier by the famous Nepalese artist and sculptor
Aniko. Thus the construction of this phase of Shalu was a
true international effort, as has frequently been the case in
Tibetan architecture. Raw materials for tile glazing and
painting must have been imported from China, while timber
was transported from across the Himalayas.
The central courtyard was roofed over to create a col-
umned assembly hall lit by a central skylight. Over the chap-
els on each of the four sides was erected a Chinese pavilion
of traditional wooden construction with a pitched roof of
green glazed tiles, looking onto the central roof terrace in the
fashion of the Jo khang. The whole was surrounded by a two-
story circumambulation corridor. Internal surfaces not al-
ready painted were covered with mural paintings, where
some of the earliest Chinese influence within Indo/Nepalese-
derived Tibetan art can be seen.
By this time the distinctive Tibetan wooden entablature
of column, bracket, beam, and joist had evolved and was
used in the lower parts of the building. In the upper Chinese
pavilions, however, Chinese bracketing and other carpentry
details are exactly those found in contemporary Chinese ar-
chitecture.
THE DGE LUGS PA STYLE. The basic temple layout exempli-
fied at Shalu was much utilized after the government was
taken over by the Dalai Lamas of the Dge lugs pa or Yellow
Hat order of Tibetan Buddhism in the mid-seventeenth cen-
tury. There was however a strong tendency to move the sites
of temples and monasteries away from the river plains of ear-
lier times to defensive hilltop positions. From there they
could dominate the surrounding landscape not only visually
and symbolically, but in some cases also militarily, in times
when armed conflict between Buddhist monastic orders and
their backers was not unknown. In some cases the temple
and monastery merged with the fortified palace, so strong
was the interconnection between religion and politics. The
most outstanding examples of this process are the Potala pal-
ace of Lhasa and the dzongs of Bhutan, though there have
been many others.
The Potala was begun by King Srong btsan sgam po in- In a development of the basic viha ̄ra layout, a rectangu-
lar ground-floor assembly hall is surrounded by inward-
looking cells over which are superimposed stories of further
cells to leave a galleried and open central inner terrace over
the hall. The internal spaces are mostly dedicated as chapels,
TEMPLE: BUDDHIST TEMPLE COMPOUNDS IN TIBET 9051