JAMPA, THUBCHEN, AND LURI GOMPAS.

JAMPA AND THUBCHEN GOMPAS, LO MONTHANG:

Jampa and Thubchen are both exemplars of the Sakya-pa tradition of monastic architecture of the fifteenth century. Yet these two gompas, barely a hundred yards apart, conceived and commissioned by the same group of persons, their designs implemented and executed by the same (or similar) craftsmen and artists, do not replicate each other. Rather, they complement each other in concept, design, and function. While Jampa represents the mystical side of Buddhism, Thubchen expresses its philosophical aspect; Jampa, entirely painted with mandalas, embodies a mystical experience and esoteric, tantric teachings; Thubchen, its vast central prayer hall decorated with serene, elegant images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, offers a mainstream vision of Mahayana Buddhism.

In word as well as image, the innermost purpose of these great gompas is made clear--not, primarily, to glorify the gods, but to serve living beings. The gods cannot bestow the gift of enlightenment, but only show the way, through the teaching offered and embodied in the gompas. Their message is wisdom and compassion: the true means that relieve suffering, the true way to happiness. The inscriptions written on the walls of both gompas (see Appendix B: Inscriptions) proclaim that they were made in order to bring liberation and peace to all who come within, and even to those who cannot reach the gompas but can at least contemplate them and what they signify.

The spacious du-khang (assembly or prayer hall) of Thubchen permits the prototypical arrangement of rows of monks who sit facing each other for worship and recitation, at right angles to a wall along which are arranged holy statues and an altar bearing ritual objects used in worship. The design of Jampa is quite different, its main hall being a lha-khang (chapel) rather than a du-khang. Its interior space is interrupted by a massive statue of Jampa (Maitreya, the Buddha of the future), set within a huge well and projecting upward from a lower level. The remaining floor space is not sufficient to permit the traditional formal worship seating of the monastic community. This, and the mystical, tantric nature of its wall paintings, set Jampa apart as a sanctum for meditation.

Materials:

The walls of both gompas are of sun-dried mud brick, rendered with earthen plasters; their interior walls and ceilings are plastered and the walls painted with an extensive program of decorative and iconographic paintings. Their floors are made of a material locally known as aka, a mixture of crushed stone and mud.

Their wall paintings were applied on dry walls rather than on wet plaster, and thus are technically not frescoes. The walls were prepared with a mixture of very fine sand mixed with several kinds of soil, as well as mud and crushed grass, and then coated with gum made from boiled skins to strengthen and compact the underlying coat. To this was added fine particles of crushed saligrams, ammonite fossils found in this region, which are held to be the footprints of Shiva--thus adding a mystical ingredient. Over this, another coat of powdered limestone and gum was applied. The pigments are based on mineral colors mixed with boiled yak skins and water, gum, and finely crushed stone. This mixture was allowed to dry in the sun, so that sedimentation occurred. From this colloidal solution, the water was then extracted. The larger particles of stone were extracted, and the finer particles were crushed again to still finer powder. This process was repeated three times. Gold paint was used for many decorative details, such as the deities' ornaments.

JAMPA GOMPA:

Jampa is set back within an enclosed space behind a wall along the lane outside, and is reached through a door in this wall. The extraordinary structure within the wall consists of a three-storied building of which the lowest story fronts onto a large courtyard.
The unusual feature of its configuration is an earthen platform, projecting forward in two wings. The three sides of this larger supporting platform partially extend over a central courtyard. They are supported by wooden pillars with carved cross-beams and decorated with the heads of lions. Jampa's external dimensions are 42 x 25 meters. The interior eastern and western walls are slightly over thirteen meters in length, and the southern and northern ones are 9.8 meters long. 

External stairs lead up to the middle level, which is the main story. It is entered by a single door on this second story. 

The third or top story is virtually inaccessible, and can be entered only by obtaining a ladder and climbing through what appears to be a window on the east wall that may once have been a door. There are indications of former doors, two on the east wall and one on the north wall, now closed in and plastered over. Even though this third level may have been reserved for initiates only, presumably there was access by means of a stairs leading to a superstructure, both having long since crumbled. An opening remains in the roof for a former set of stairs. This opening has exposed this floor to weather and caused extreme damage to its paintings. 

Like its sister gompa, Thubchen, the exterior of Jampa is stained with a red clay wash.

The central feature of Jampa is an enormous gilded clay statue of an enthroned Jampa (Maitreya), the Buddha of the future age, approximately fifteen meters high, which until recently was the largest statue in Nepal. In the light from the open door, the huge golden figure glows softly. The base of Jampa's throne is set into a smaller room at the level of the courtyard. The paintings on this first floor have faded almost to invisibility. The body and crowned head of the statue rise into the lha-khang--the second, or middle floor, where they are covered with a full ceiling overhead. From the third, topmost floor, the statue is not visible.

The Main Floor.

The main or second story, the lha-khang, is rectangular, with its single door set into the east wall. When open, it is the only source of light, as there are no windows or skylight. As the statue is set directly against the west wall (opposite the door), it is not possible to make the customary circumambulation. (This is possible, however, in the small room on the ground floor, holding the base of the statue.) The width of the lha-khang is thirteen meters and the length is 9.8 meters. Its height is approximately five meters.

The major element of the design is the double row of large mandalas that encircle the great room. To the left of the door, as one enters, are two registers of three mandalas each, superimposed above each other, six in all. The southern wall has six mandalas in each register, twelve in all. The west wall, separated into two sections by the statue, has two large superimposed mandalas on each side of the statue. The northern wall repeats the pattern of the southern wall, with two rows of six, twelve in all, six of which have been virtually obliterated by seepage of mud and water. The section of the east wall, to the right of the door, is similarly symmetrical, with six mandalas in two registers. Alongside the door, on either side, are four stacked, superimposed squares, containing images of various manifestations of Mahakala. Thus there are a total of forty large mandalas, each approximately 1.5 meters in diameter, with some variation in size; of these thirty-four remain sufficiently undamaged to be seen. Wrapped by mandalas, this lha-khang is a hall of inner vision and magic possibilities, the walls swirling with mandalas believed to have power, with a deity at the core of each who can be made real.

Positioned in the spaces between and beside the large mandalas are smaller ones, of which sixty-six can still be seen, as well as small roundels or vignettes containing images of individual deities. Tucked into the small spaces left by vignettes, mandalas, vines and flowers are a few charming miniature images, where artists perhaps seized the opportunity to add their individual touch to the overall plan. Twined around all the mandalas, great and small, and wreathed around the vignettes, are scrolling vines and flowers. Thus there is no empty space; rather, the painted areas in their entirety are patterned into a brilliant and intricate tapestry. 	

Although, as mentioned above, Buddhist art is almost always unsigned and anonymous, in a few places, some artists very discreetly wrote a few words and sometimes their names, not with a large flourish but in very small script. In one, the artist Tungchen wrote that these paintings were made to ensure that all prayers made here would go directly to Maitreya (Jampa). Another, Chogyong Wangchu, expressed his desire that all may enjoy a long life, free of sickness. And a very small inscription tells that Palpo Devananda came [from Kathmandu: "Palpo" is the Newari name of what we now call Nepal] and made this painting: as rain falls from the sky, making people rejoice, let this mandala, like the rain, bring peace, and happiness.

Below the mandalas on part of the eastern wall is a painted frieze of protector deities. A band of written inscriptions (see Appendix B, Inscriptions), and a band of small painted vajras, extend around the base of the painted sections, forming a border. Below this border, the walls are merely painted black. From the floor, this lower portion is about 110 cm high.

The upper, third story, almost inaccessible today because of structural damage, may possibly have been reserved for special or higher initiates. This floor is 2.75 meters in width and 3.4 meters in length. The northern end, which once accommodated a stairway to the building's roof, is partially open to the sky. Owing to this open skylight, damage to the walls has been extensive, with sections defaced by water and mud, and the colors altered because of exposure. As on the floor below, large portions of the paintings on the north wall have been totally obliterated. Of its large mandalas, twenty-nine are more or less legible, each about 1.2 meters in diameter, and approximately one hundred vignettes can still be seen.

The third story is a hall of tantra, painted with a single row of thirty-one mandalas, all of them tantric, with couples in yab-yum in the center of each. Whereas on the floor below, one is surrounded by Dhyani-Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, wrathful deities and Dharmapalas, this upper story is given to yi-dams amd their mandalas. Between the mandalas are smaller vignettes depicting yi-dams, singly and in yab-yum, and minor supramundane beings. Dakinis dance and some leap into the air, performing acrobatic feats. These mandalas are much less complex and ornate than the ones below, and thus their central figures stand out more prominently. Instead of the concentric rings of fire, lotus petals, and vajras that encircle the mandalas on the floor below, the outer rims of these mandalas depict charnel grounds, with severed limbs and fierce beasts--a feature of tantric imagery. The space around the mandalas is also much less richly decorated, with no scrolling vine, flowers or tiny secular images. Athough the colors are faded or darkened through exposure, the palette appears to have been much more restricted and austere.

There are twenty-eight large mandalas in a single register on the upper floor: seven large mandalas on the east wall, seven on the south wall, four on the north wall, and ten on the west wall. These are interrupted on the west wall by a Buddha flanked by two standing Bodhisattvas. Below the mandalas are groups of small roundels. 

Due to the lack of historical records and other literature, it is extremely difficult to identify with any certainty the mandalas of Jampa. As mentioned above, Jampa is unique, strikingly unusual, with two floors painted entirely with mandalas. It seems clear to us that they are not simply a set of unconnected, essentially random mandalas. It is unlikely that Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo would have conceived such a monumental design without a thematic, unifying plan. Rather, this great series of mandalas appears programmatic, embodying a specific teaching.

We thought at first, particularly in light of Lama Ngawang Jorden's conversation with several lamas in Nepal, that the Jampa mandalas might be identified as the teaching known as the Vajravali, but this could not be confirmed by His Holiness Sakya Trizin, head of the Sakya school. After further review, Lama Jorden considers, however, that they almost certainly belong to the Yogatantra, the third of the four classes of Tantra. A list of fifty-four Lo (Jampa) mandalas identified by name appears in the Lo Ko Sanskritik Sampada by Prayag Raj Sharma and Jagman Gurung, 2000, most of which appear in the Collection of Ngor Mandalas of Tibet, in the section concerned with Yogatantra mandalas. The great Ngorchen was especially known for propagating the teachings and practices of Yogatantra. Keith Dowman and Roberto Vitali have offered nearly congruent identifications for some of the Jampa mandalas (see Appendix A: Jampa Mandalas, and also Bibliography), diverging in only a few instances, and evidently based on interpretation of the inscriptions below the mandalas. To that extent, it is safe to say that these mandalas were related to teachings, including Vajradhatu, that were given by Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo during his three visits to Mustang.

The Four Classes of Tantra:
The Tibetan Buddhist Canon (the Kanjur) incorporates a great number and variety of tantras whose origins were accepted as authentic. These were categorized into four main groups:
Action Tantra        (Kriya Tantra)
Performance Tantra   (Charya Tantra)
Yoga Tantra          (Yoga Tantra)
Supreme Yoga Tantra  (Anuttarayoga Tantra).

These categories are often explained on the premise that persons differ according to their abilities and predilections. The different classes of tantras offer various approaches to the spiritual path, as is appropriate for different types of persons. All, it is explained, are directed toward the same goal: the attainment of non-duality or Buddhahood, yet the "lower" classes of tantra require several lifetimes, while the "highest" aims to achieve the goal in one lifetime.

The Kriya Tantra group is considered suitable for those whose disposition is more physically active than intellectual. Its practices focus on ritual acts, such as making liturgical offerings, circumambulation, prostrations, recitations and the chanting of ritual formulas or mantras, and other such "active" practices by which one can acquire merit and obtain blessing. 

The Charya Tantra is considered appropriate for those who with a more intellectual disposition, who can participate in a balance of both physical activities (external yoga) as well as meditation (interior yoga). Yet it is not considered significantly different from Kriya Tantra. 

For those of yet higher intellect, with the preference and ability to undertake concentrated meditation, the Yoga Tantra is taught. This tantra involves visualization of the deity, leading to visualization of the self as the deity. 

Lastly, the Anuttarayoga Tantra is for those of the most superior or disciplined intellect, requiring the greatest control of mind. These two "higher" tantras are a more intensive path toward transformation, as the practitioner seeks identification with a chosen divinity--achieving, in effect, the yogic transformation or union of the self with the deity.
	
THUBCHEN GOMPA:

The newer of the two great gompas, Thubchen is a single-storied gompa, its external structure less complex than that of Jampa. Its external dimensions are 30 x 19 meters. Unlike Jampa, it is not elevated above ground; rather, its entrance is a few steps below ground level, and is reached directly from the lane outside.(r)MDRV¯(r)MDNM¯ An entrance chamber, on the east wall, may have been added at a later date. Traditionally, the porch of a gompa is painted with the images of the four directional guardians and often with a Wheel of Life but, instead, statues of the customary four guardians appear in this antechamber. These figures are of late date, crudely executed.
	Its vast prayer hall, the du-khang, with an open floor plan resembling that of a basilica, is impressive in every respect. The du-khang is approximately 28 x 18 meters, and is 7.6 in height. This huge space is illuminated by a large central skylight. Within this space, supporting the ceiling, are thirty-five large wooden pillars, evenly spaced in rows, seven in each row from east to west, and five in each from north to south. These pillars are nine meters high. Cross-beams at the top of the pillars are carved and painted in traditional Tibetan style. Below the skylight is a wooden frame from which projects a superb set of carved lions, their heads, shoulders and forepaws seeming to emerge from the wood--fangs bared and claws outstretched.
	A large chorten, seven meters high, is sited in the southwest corner of the hall. Along most of the western wall, a series of platforms supports nine statues of deities and spiritual leaders: on the highest dais are Shakyamuni, Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, and Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), and a somewhat lower one bears statues including Vajradhara, the white Tara, Amitaya, and Hayagriva. In the northeast corner of the du-khang is an opening into a small room, now empty, possibly a former gon-khang--an inner chamber dedicated to a protector deity, usually a form of Mahakala, and reserved for initiates. The wall closing off this room appears to have been shifted, and paintings within have been almost completely lost.  
	The surviving paintings in the vast du-khang consist of twelve triad sets, each with a large, central Buddha--Shakyamuni, Vajrasattva, or other deity. Each central figure is flanked by two standing Bodhisattvas or disciples, delicate and elegant in execution. The best preserved of these is an image of Shakyamuni Buddha, with Avalokiteshvara on the Buddha's right side, and Manjushri on the left. There are seven of these triads on the east, or entrance wall, eight on the south wall, and one still visible on the north wall. Interspersed among these triads are approximately two hundred smaller figures. Along the east wall are superimposed medallions centered on smaller images of deities, and below the large figures is a frieze with roundels of protector deities and guardians. The paintings on the north wall are of later date and different style. In contrast to the intense mysticism of Jampa, with its air of magic, the Thubchen du-khang conveys a thoughtful serenity, embodying the spirit of Mahayana Buddhism.  

	
LURI GOMPA:

	In the desert east of Lo Monthang, sandstone cliffs and bluffs have been fluted by wind and weather into fantastical formations, like serried, tapered pillars or organ pipes. The sandstone cliffs and bluffs of this region are pitted with caves, and such a cave forms the inner sanctum of Luri gompa, a small jewel of Buddhist art. The gompa, covered with a red wash, perched on a ledge on a 100-meter high cliff, stands out against the sand and bone-colored sandstone pillars. (A newer gompa is found below on the valley floor; although more easily accessible, it is of no art-historical interest.) The part of Luri gompa visible from the valley below is its mud-brick superstructure, perched on a ledge on one of these sandstone pillars. Photographs make it appear that entrance to the gompa is obtained by scaling this pillar, yet a winding footpath climbs one hundred meters to a door in a lower cave, inside which a notched log leads up to the gompa itself. A single entrance door opens into the outer chamber 
	The outer chamber, containing a shrine, is painted very crudely, apparently at a later date than the paintings within. This outer chamber leads into the inner room, the cave within the rock.
	The treasure of Luri is the inner chamber, a rounded space that was hollowed out or enlarged and smoothed within the cave. One small window provides some natural light. In the center of this chamber is a chorten, six meters high, with painted figures on all sides of its rectangular base, on its dome, and also beneath the ritual parasol atop the dome. The domed ceiling is decorated with eight painted images of Mahasiddhas, circling above the chorten. Along one wall is a set of painted figures, amd above them a row of nine small portraits of lamas.  
	Although no documentation has been found pertaining to this gompa, its paintings appear to be of earlier date than those in Jampa and Thubchen, perhaps by a hundred years, which would set them back to the fourteenth century, or even earlier. While the later paintings of Jampa and Thubchen belong to the later, more fully developed Tibetan style, a classical style with elements of Chinese influence, the Luri images reflect the influence of Indian and Kashmiri style. The small lama portraits may possible reflect Persian or Byzantine influence. Helmut F. Neumann has offered identifications of many of these images (see Bibliography).
	The Mahasiddhas were historical persons, yogic masters, and their collective name has sometimes been translated as "great adepts." This refers not to a group of scholars but rather to promulgators and practitioners of tantrism, employing ritual and incantation, and legends ascribe magic powers to them. According to the legends, some lived in the forest or in caves, and thus Luri's cave setting is very appropriate. The Hindu god Shiva is the lord of yogins. By tradition, they are eighty-four in number. Their historical dates appear to extend between the eighth and twelfth centuries.