Tashi Gomang Chörten

The Tashi Gomang Chörten (བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒོ་མང་མཆོད་རྟེན་) stands immediately in front of the Sumtsek, forming the gateway to the oldest part of the Alchi Choskhor. Previously known as the Small Stupa, it takes its name from the many auspicious doors type (tashi gomang, བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒོ་མང་) clearly visible in its outer superstructure, and from the chörten of that type mentioned in the inscription of the Palden Drepung Chörten as modelled on one built by Drigungpa Jikten Gönpo (འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་; 1143–1217). Both the inscription and the close structural and iconographic parallels with the Palden Drepung Chörten date it to around 1220 (◊ Tashi Gomang Chörten). Today the building forms part of an ensemble of four gateway chörten in front of the Sumtsek, but the Twin Chörten alongside it was added later.

The Tashi Gomang and the adjacent Twin Chörten share a joined base with external dimensions of 5.99 by 11.53 metres; the Tashi Gomang Chörten rises to 6.83 metres. Its single passage, averaging 1.20 metres wide, leads through to the square inner chamber measuring 2.38 metres on each side with walls 2.15 metres high and a lantern ceiling of 4.63 metres.

The outer shell clearly belongs to the many auspicious doors type, with a multi-cornered plan and three windows on each side of each level. The passage preserves original murals in its eastern wing, including a row of seated Buddhas beneath a double row of chörten, and an inscription panel containing the Caityapradakṣiṇagāthā, a canonical text on the merits of circumambulating a chörten.

Outer Chörten

The walls of the outer chamber and the lowest level of the lantern ceiling are covered with approximately one thousand representations of the blue Buddha Akṣobhya, establishing the orientation of the chörten towards the Main Temple area, where the only windows of the base level open. In the centre of each side wall a single mandala interrupts the Akṣobhya field. The south wall presents a thirteen-deity Amogha­pāśa mandala centred on a highly unusual form of Avalo­ki­teśvara — white, four-armed, with the main hands in meditation and a vase from which a branch grows in the left secondary hand — surrounded by four wrathful deities of alternating gender, skull-cup vases in the intermediate directions, outer offering goddesses and four gate-keepers. The north wall has a seventeen-deity Prajñā­pāramitā mandala: the six-armed white central deity performs the teaching gesture, her white colour identifying her with Vairocana.

The lantern ceiling constitutes a variant of the Śākyasiṃha mandala from the Sarvadurgati­pariśodhana­tantra cycle, expanded by additional figures signifying auspiciousness. The central panel — now lost — held Śākyamuni as the lion of the Śākya clan (Śākyasiṃha), surrounded by eight goddesses identifiable as personifications of the eight auspicious symbols. Then follow the standard assembly of eight Uṣṇīṣa Buddhas, eight offering goddesses, sixteen Bodhisattvas and four gate-keepers. Together with the Prajñā­pāramitā mandala on the wall, this ceiling mandala expresses the funerary character of the monument, both being concerned with the purification of bad rebirths.

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Inner Chörten

The inner chörten is comparable in type to that in the Palden Drepung Chörten. The vehicle animals on its throne identify its dedication to Buddha Amitābha: a pair of garuḍa on the north and lions on the west. A small painted chamber at the base is topped by a lantern ceiling with a central lotus. Each of the four inner walls presents a teacher surrounded by secondary figures. On the east wall the mahāsiddha Padampa Sanggye crouches in the same posture as in the Palden Drepung Chörten, here accompanied by five teaching Buddhas and a group of local priests performing offerings beneath, confirming his function as the symbolic transmitter of the mahāsiddha teachings.

On the north wall, Drigungpa Jikten Gönpo is shown in a composition directly referencing contemporaneous central Tibetan scroll paintings (thang ka) of the Drigung school: he is flanked by standing Avalo­ki­teśvara and Mañjuśrī, with a teaching lineage above beginning unusually with Vajrasattva rather than Vajradhara, followed by Tilopa and Nāropa, and seven protective deities including Mahākāla and Remaṭī in the lower register — all characteristic of the Drigung tradition. That various elements deviate from canonical Drigung conventions suggests this is one of the earliest representations of this compositional type, standing at the very beginning of its standardisation.

The overall iconographic programme of the chörten is commemorative: the Śākyasiṃha and Prajñā­pāramitā mandalas address rebirth purification, the Amogha­pāśa mandala serves a funerary function, and the Akṣobhya images evoke his paradise Abhirati as the goal of rebirth. The chörten was most likely dedicated to Tsültrim Ö or an eminent monk in his immediate circle.