Choskhor

The monastic complex or Choskhor at Alchi contains three temples and two chörten attributable to its earliest phase. These include the Main Temple (གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་), the Three-Storied Temple or Sumtsek (གསུམ་བརྩེགས་), the Mañjuśrī Temple (འཇམ་དཔལ་ལྷ་ཁང་), the Palden Drepung Chörten (དཔལ་ལྡན་འབྲས་སྤུང་མཆོད་རྟེན་, formerly Great Chörten or Great Stūpa), and the Tashi Gomang Chörten (བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒོ་མངས་མཆོད་རྟེན་, formerly Small Chörten). These latter decorated gateway chörten (kakani chörten, ཀ་ཀ་ཎི་མཆོད་རྟེན་) are of a type unique to Alchi and closely related monuments. In addition, the tower-like structures flanking the Main Temple belong to an early phase of the monastery as well as its courtyard.

Somewhat later additions include the Translator's Temple (ལོ་ཙ་བ་ལྷ་ཁང་) and the so-called New Temple or Lhakhang Soma (ལྷ་ཁང་སོ་མ་). In addition, a number of chörten were added at an early period, including the Raised Chörten in the courtyard of the Main Temple and the Twin Chörten. Other early chörten throughout the complex do not retain paintings.

Back to top

History

Traditionally, the foundation of Alchi Monastery is attributed to the great translator Rinchen Zangpo (རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ་; 958–1055). However, the oldest preserved monuments date from the end of the 12th century to c. 1230.

Very little historical background is known about the Alchi temples. While upper Ladakh, down to Shey or even Leh, was at least temporarily under Guge control, lower Ladakh was probably partly independent. Alchi was part of a small dominion ruled by members of the Dro (འབྲོ་) clan, of Central Tibetan origin. This dominion defined itself as part of Tibet in general and West Tibet (མངའ་རིས་) in particular. The founders of the two temples were monks of the Dro clan who were educated at Nyarma (an extensive ruin near Tikse monastery). The Alchi Choskhor was thus originally a family monastery, inherited from uncle to nephew.

The Three-Storeyed Temple or Sumtsek can be dated to c. 1220 on the basis of both the inscription inside the Palden Drepung Chörten (The Pearl Garland Composition) and a lineage of identified teachers on the third-floor entrance wall. The founder of the Drigung (འབྲི་གུང་) school, Drigungpa (འབྲི་གུང་པ་; i.e. Jikten Gönpo, འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་, 1143–1217), is named in the caption accompanying the depiction and appears as the last figure in the lineage. The Palden Drepung Chörten inscription implies that the Sumtsek housed a shrine dedicated to Drigungpa's relics. The current central chörten is clearly a more recent addition to the monument.

Dating Alchi

A lot of ink has been spilt concerning the date of the Alchi monuments. One would think that the discovery of new information from the inscription in the Palden Drepung Chörten would bring this discussion to a conclusion. Written by Tsültrim Ö, this text not only fully supports Goepper’s attribution of the Sum­tsek to the early 13th century but also corroborates his connection to Drigungpa (1143–1217).

One wonders why the dating of Alchi has been such an issue in scholarship. Local resistance to Goepper’s date is more readily understood, as it may be taken to imply that Alchi was once a Drigung school monument. The Drigung school still has a powerful presence in the region, but Likir Monastery, to which Alchi belongs, adheres to the Géluk (དགེ་ལུགས་) tradition.

I now maintain that crediting early monuments from the pre-Géluk period, including Alchi, to the great translator Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055) was and is a clever way to claim a Géluk heritage for them, as the Géluk school regards itself as his continuation. This understanding is already evident in the Red Temple, or Dukhang Dzamlinggyen, in Tholing, where a triad centred on Rinchen Zangpo to the left of the niche is balanced by a triad with Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), the founder of the Géluk school, at its centre.

Alchi was founded by the Dro (འབྲོ་) family, who also held the abbotship. Thus, although Tsültrim Ö declared his devotion to Drigungpa and may even have built the Sumtsek in his memory, this does not mean the monastery ever became a Drigung monastery. To establish that, further evidence is required.

Back to top

Research

The Alchi Choskhor and the surrounding village have been central to my research from an early stage. I first visited the village in Lower Ladakh in 1990, where I met both Rob Linrothe and Jaroslav Poncar. During this first research trip, I also lost all my photographs when my camera malfunctioned. Both the meetings and the camera’s failure have defined my research. The former established long-lasting friendships and collaborations, and the latter led to my investment in photographic documentation, on which much of my research is based.

While I continued to visit Alchi regularly, my research on its monuments always depended on the generosity of Jaroslav Poncar and Roger Goepper. First, they provided me with the documentation needed to study the Buddha’s life as depicted in detail on Maitreya’s dhoti in the Alchi Sumtsek. Later, they encouraged me to continue working on the monuments of the Alchi Choskhor to complement the Sumtsek publication.

In 1998, I began collaborating with Holger Neuwirth, which resulted in a much more refined understanding of the complex’s development. This cooperation also produced plans for the complex that document the condition of 2003.

But advancing scholarship on the site has been a major challenge. In particular, the Dukhang maṇḍalas needed to be explained using sources likely available at the time. Only by drawing on the Tibetan root texts, the translated Indian commentaries, the religious milieu evident in the Alchi inscriptions, and the murals themselves was it possible to gain a closer understanding of the Alchi depictions. But there is still plenty of work to do.