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Idols, frescoes and thangkas in chokhangs or small family temples in the Spiti valley continue to remain inaccessible to outsiders, write Kishore Thukral and Sunil Nandrajog Sandwiched between perennially snow-capped mountains, the valley of Spiti in Himachal Pradesh remains largely unknown. This is because there is neither air nor rail connection from the "mainland", and the valley has to be reached by narrow, rough roads through canyons, across streams, beneath overhangs and high mountain-passes.
The fortunes of this
remote valley have forever been linked to those of its more powerful
neighbours, the erstwhile kingdoms of Ladakh, Bushair, Kulu and Guge
in western Tibet. Spiti’s history, however, goes back much further,
to a time before the Indian subcontinent broke away from Gondwanaland
and crashed into Eurasia some 60 to 100 million years ago. The
Himalayas were born of this collision, and the Tethys Sea, until then,
lapping the shores of these portions, disappeared into oblivion.
Coming across fossils of maritime creatures belonging to that era,
therefore, is However, there’s more to Spiti’s heritage than just the fossils. For a seasoned walker, boundaries of the present-day Tibet are barely a day or two away. That explains why Vajrayana Buddhism, commonly known as Tibetan Buddhism, has flourished here. The last years have seen the founding of five major gonpas (monasteries) and more than 30 lakhangs (temples). Besides these, there are
the chokhangs (small family temples). Unknown and inaccessible to
outsiders, there are a handful of them in every village, each having
survived hundreds of Spitian winters when temperatures plummet to as
low as -35`BA C. The condition of some of these structures demands
immediate attention, as does the plenitude inside — idols, frescoes,
ritual objects The Archaeological Survey of India takes care of Tabo, the beautiful monastery founded in 996 CE, but the others, specially the smaller chokhangs have pretty much been left to their own devices. The chokhangs in far-flung villages are unknown to the tour operators and well nigh inaccessible to the outsiders, but the rare thangkas hanging in them are breathtakingly beautiful. These are seen by none but the locals. The first challenge is to reach them, and then look through the cracks and the mould and the soot they have gathered from butter lamps lit over hundreds of years. Some of them are in near tatters, but these small temples lack the resources to maintain or restore them. However, an exhibition of reproduction of these unique works of art was held recently in Delhi by the Tusita Divine Art. The works on display were not created by any contemporary artist but were actual reproductions of the ancient Thangkas hidden away in small family temples in Spiti. The project is the outcome of a decade of walking and driving through rough mountain terrain for research and meticulous documentation by a scholar of Spiti. The thangkas are reproduced aesthetically on the finest canvas and mounted with contemporary accessories. The description of the iconography (sometimes running into dozens of pages) accompanying each Thangka reproduction is presented in a never-before-done calendar-like format. Seventy five per cent of sales from the exhibition will go directly to the chokhangs for their preservation and also the restoration of these rare Thangkas. Each reproduction of
these rare Thangkas brought out by the Tusita Divine Art is
accompanied by a well-researched and detailed description written in
close consultation with senior monks and with reference to
authoritative works by scholars of Tibetan Buddhist art — a first of
its kind again. Beautifully designed in a "calendar-like
format", it complements the thangka and can be hung alongside
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