gyantse

crowded up against the mountains that ring this verdant valley, the monastic complex of gyantse dates to the 15th century and includes the mandala-shaped 'kumbum' structure as well as a large monastery. the town of gyantse includes a fortress perched atop the highest peak in town. this peak was stormed by the british during the younghusband 'expedition' that invaded tibet in the early 20th century. the panoramic view was taken from the ground floor of that fortress.
during the two days we spent here, students were assigned a room in the kumbum to study and present to the rest of the group. the organizers generously assigned me and a friend - brid arthur - to the tushita chapel, a room devoted to maitreya, the buddha of the future. along with the two-story high central image of maitreya, the room features flanking life-size bodhisattvas seated waist-height on massive lotuses... and walls covered with past-lfe stories of buddha maitreya. the murals both summarize over a dozen narratives of maitreya's career as a bodhisattva in text and also depict in spectacular murals covering virtually all available wall space.

the monastic complex at gyantse sits at the early end of when scholars identify a distinctly tibetan style of art. one of the earliest known tibetan artists to found a school of painting is thought to have learned to paint, in part, by studying the wall-paintings at gyantse.

to my delight, the murals not only retell in word and image the past lives of maitreya - they also identify the textual source from which the story is drawn. luckily this is one of the monasteries that permits photographing of its interior chapels, and i spend much of our free time here documenting the walls of this tushita chapel, with thoughts of future research projects... the quality of my photos here makes it clear: next time i need a better camera...