Village

Lamayuru lies at an altitude of 3,510 metres, approximately 125 kilometres west of the capital Leh along the Srinagar–Leh highway. It is best known for its prominent Drigung Kagyü (‘bri gung bka' brgyud འབྲི་གུང་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་) monastery, which rises prominently on a rocky spur above the village. Its location, surrounded by eroded terrain, makes it one of the most picturesque monastic establishments in the region.

The monastery traces itself back to the mahāsiddha Naropa (na ro pa ན་རོ་པ་; 1016–1100), and thus to the eleventh century. However, the village's oldest Buddhist heritage is preserved in smaller monuments along the western approach, dating to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Painted Chörten

Among the cluster of chörten (མཆོད་རྟེན་), the Tibetan stūpa, on the west side of the village are three gateway chörten (kamkani chörten, ཀཾ་ཀ་ནི་མཆོད་རྟེན་) which preserve remains of thirteenth-century paintings. Of the third and latest, only some painting fragments on the lantern ceiling are preserved. The two photographs of that ceiling are in the ◊ Painted Chörten gallery.

The earliest painted chörten in the group — designated as ◊ Teacher Chörten for its central figures — preserves two of its painted walls and fragments of painting on its lantern ceiling. Each wall is centred on a teacher seated in meditation, surrounded by an array of Buddha Akṣobhya – Mikyöpa (mi bskyod pa མི་བསྐྱོད་པ་). In terms of the teachers’ dress and the painting style, these murals are closely related to the Alchi Sumtsek. They thus certainly date to the second quarter of the thirteenth century. The gallery documentation dates from 1998, and its paintings are briefly discussed in Luczanits 2005.

The other chörten — designated here as the Buddha Chörten for its principal images — contains a chamber measuring c. 2.15 x 2.15 metres. Like the Alchi ◊ Shangrong Chörten, it is aligned along an east-west axis, with the present entrance facing west at 285°. Previously, it was a passage chörten, but today the eastern end is walled off. The wall paintings are in poor, fragmentary condition; only the north wall with Amoghasiddhi – Dönyö Druppa (don yod grub pa དོན་ཡོད་གྲུབ་པ་) and the south wall with Ratnasambhava – Rinchen Jungden (rin chen 'byung ldan རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་ལྡན་) are largely preserved. On the east wall, only a few traces of the paintings remain, and the west wall is completely devoid of the original decoration. As detailed in Luczanits 1998, the fragmentary paintings of this and the Shangrong Chörten represent an unusual, rather Central Tibetan, style and most likely date to the second half of the thirteenth century. The workshop responsible for them may have been the same as the one active at Alchi Shangrong. The documentation in the ◊ Buddha Chörten gallery was carried out in 1994 in black and white; the colour images are from 1998.

Senggé Lhakhang

The Senggé Lhakhang (seng ge lha khang སེང་གེ་ལྷ་ཁང་), or Lion Temple, is the oldest surviving temple in Lamayuru, dating to the early fourteenth century. Its name is certainly not original, but it derives from the prominent lions on the thrones along the main wall.

The two-pillar room is centred on polychromed clay sculptures of the five esoteric Buddhas, with Vairocana at their centre. His elaborate throne frame, surmounted by a prominent garuḍa, takes up half the wall. The murals on the other walls are severely damaged by water intrusions, but much of the original iconographic programme remained legible. The left side of the entry wall features the Eight Pronouncement Deities – Kagyé (bka' brgyad བཀའ་བརྒྱད་). Diverse forms of Avalokiteśvara – Chenrézikkyi Wangchuk (spyan ras gzigs kyi dbang phyug སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་) and Mañjuśrī – Jampel ('jam dpal འཇམ་དཔལ་), Amitāyus with Guru Rinpoché (gu ru rin po che གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་), and a Sarvavid Vairocana – Künrik Nampar Nangdzé (kun rig rnam par snang mdzad ཀུན་རིག་རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་) mandala along with other assemblies of the Tantra for the Purification of All Bad Transmigrations (Sarvadurgatipariśodhanatantra) occupy the left wall. On the right wall, the murals on the main wall side are best preserved and feature themes that are specific to Drigung Kagyü (‘bri gung bka' brgyud འབྲི་གུང་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་) affiliated monuments, such as the Eighty-plus Mahāsiddha, and a teaching Śākyamuni – Shakya Tuppa (śākya thub pa ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་) with seven Tārā – Drölma (sgrol ma སྒྲོལ་མ་) underneath. Uṣṇīṣavijayā – Tsuktor Namgyelma (gtsug tor rnam rgyal ma གཙུག་ཏོར་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་མ་), Bhaiṣajyaguru – Menla (sman bla སྨན་བླ་) and a Dharmadhātu Mandala assembly are further topics on this wall. Finally, the passage to the Protector’s Chapel – Gönkhang (mgon khang མགོན་ཁང་) features a rudimentary Drigung lineage and the protectors Acala – Miyowa (mi g.yo ba མི་གཡོ་བ་) and Vajrapāṇi – Chakna Dorjé (phyag na rdo rje ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་).

Thus, the murals of the Senggé Lhakhang can be attributed to the Drigung Kagyü School not only on the basis of the teacher depictions in the passage to the side chapel, where Pakmodrupa Dorjé Gyelpo (phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་; 1110–1170) with his characteristic beard faces Drigungpa Jigten Gönpo (’bri gung pa ’jig rten mgon po འབྲི་གུང་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་; 1143–1217), the founder of the Drigung lineage (Luczanits 2014). Further, the compositions of some of the depictions link the Senggé Lhakhang to the Tashi Sumtsek at Wanla.

The paintings and protector deities in the Protector’s Chapel are relatively recent. Here the four-armed Penden Lhamo (dpal ldan lha mo དཔལ་ལྡན་ལྷ་མོ་) is flanked by Mahākāla – Gönpo (mgon po མགོན་པོ་) and a worldly protector deity.