138 lojda, klimburg-salter and strinu
century on the basis of palaeographic evidence,32 but such an early date is also
plausible on stylistic grounds.
As already noted, only a relative date can be proposed for the stone sculp-
tures and engravings in present day Northern Pakistan and Ladakh, India.33
The paintings and sculptures of Tabo Phase I are the only artefacts that can
be relatively securely dated to c. 996. Tabo Phase I marks the turning point in
the development from an early, Central Asian influenced style to a new Indo-
Tibetan Style, as is visible in some stylistic features that include a more elabo-
rate facial structure, the depiction of the abdomen and the use of shading.
The paintings of the Tabo entry hall seem to be the result of two workshops
working on Phase I. One of them displays a traditional Western Tibetan style,
identified here as the Tibetan Himalayan Style, while the other already antici-
pates influences of the Indo-Tibetan Style.
3 The Early Tibetan Himalayan Style: Theories of Cultural Transfer
In order to understand the process of visual transfer of this early Tibetan style
deriving from Central Asia, the contemporaneous artistic productions of other
parts of the Tibetan Empire have to be examined. In the temple of Keru (Tib.
Ke ru lha khang) in the Central Tibetan region of Ön (Tib. ’On), a group of
sculptures depicting standing bodhisattvas in this early style can be seen in situ
in the cella of the temple (fig. 4.8).34
According to Wangdu the temple, which is called Keru, was founded in
the ninth century, however there is no textual basis for the dating of either the
three buildings or the paintings and sculptures.35 The sculptures of the cella
32 Denwood, “The Tibetans in the Western Himalayas and Karakoram,” 51, and Jahoda and
Papa-Kalantari, “Eine frühe buddhistische Steinstele in sPu rang”, 373 refer to the first
studies of this stele by Tshe ring chos rgyal, and to Zla ba tshe ring “Gsar du brnyed pa’i
spu hreng gi spyan ras gzigs kyi rdo ring las byung ba’i gtam dpyad,” 4–20, and to a date to
the beginning of the ninth century.
33 Denwood, “The Tibetans in the Western Himalayas and Karakoram,” 52.
34 According to Vitali, Early Temples of Central Tibet, 19–20, the sculptures in the cella of
a temple, which he calls Kwachu, were donated by the Tibetan military commander
Dro Tri Sumje (Tib. ’Bro Khri gSum rje) who was active in Dunhuang during the reign
of Ralpacan (Ral pa can, r. 815–c 838). However, Wangdu, Pasang, “Ke ru lha khang:
Cultural Preservation and Interdisciplinary Research in Central Tibet,” in Text, Image
and Song in Transdisciplinary Dialogue, ed. Deborah Klimburg-Salter, Kurt Tropper, and
Christian Jahoda (Leiden, Boston: Brill 2007) identifies this temple as Keru (Tib. Ke ru). He
demonstrates that the temple called Kwachu is located close to Samye (Tib. bSam yas).
35 Wangdu, “Ke ru lha khang,” 49.