Chuksang
The village of Chuksang in lower Mustang, which also takes care of Gönpa Gang, houses a village monastery. This monastery was documented in June 2023, and while it contained several ancient books, its sculptures were very few. The reason for that became clear the following year.
As sacred images kept disappearing on both sites, Gönpa Gang and the village temple, the villagers developed a complex system to prevent further loss. More valuable items were hidden in four boxes, distributed among different households. A fifth household kept records of the boxes’ content and caretakers, and responsibility for each rotated every two years.In June 2024, the community came together to open the boxes containing the statues and have them documented and assessed by Christian Luczanits on behalf of the Norbusum Foundation. When bringing the boxes together, it turned out that the caretaker of the fourth box had died a few months earlier, and the box had to be retrieved from the house.
The following images show the documentation in chronological order: the first five images are from the temple documentation in 2023, and the remaining five are from the documentation of the sculptures in the boxes.
As sacred images kept disappearing on both sites, Gönpa Gang and the village temple, the villagers developed a complex system to prevent further loss. More valuable items were hidden in four boxes, distributed among different households. A fifth household kept records of the boxes’ content and caretakers, and responsibility for each rotated every two years.In June 2024, the community came together to open the boxes containing the statues and have them documented and assessed by Christian Luczanits on behalf of the Norbusum Foundation. When bringing the boxes together, it turned out that the caretaker of the fourth box had died a few months earlier, and the box had to be retrieved from the house.
The following images show the documentation in chronological order: the first five images are from the temple documentation in 2023, and the remaining five are from the documentation of the sculptures in the boxes.
Collection
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The village temple of Chuksang preserves a range of interesting items. The following is a selection of the most important discoveries shared on social media.
The temple houses an ancient Perfection of Wisdom in Hundred Thousand Verses (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) with an illumination programme of exceptional quality and style. The earlier among the illuminations, such as the image of the goddess Vasudhārā, link stylistically to the murals of the Mentsünkhang in a cave above Chuksang village. Another style used for wrathful figures links to the paintings of the Luri cave. This connection is particularly clear with the representation of Vajrapāṇi. As far as I can tell, the Chuksang illuminations are the earliest paintings using the abstracted lobed-arch eyebrows and beard that also characterise the Luri paintings, and much of the later Newar depictions of wrathful figures. Among the sculptures are a rare depiction of an Indian tantric practitioner, several Kagyü School teachers, an unusual representation of Padmasambhava, and an image of Umā-Maheśvara. The documented images are compiled into a poster distributed to the villagers of Chuksang, with the central image depicting the Maitreya Buddha of Gönpa Gang. |
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