Luri Chörten Cave

Among the many cave monuments in the Mustang region, the Luri chörten cave is best preserved. Approaching the site high up on a fragile conglomerate cliff, with a fairly recent cubic structure projecting from it, one can hardly imagine that it contains one of the most outstanding treasures of Himalayan art (◊ Luri). The approximately 4 x 4 metre small cave cut into the conglomerate rock contains paintings of exceptional quality, the chörten itself outstanding through its highly polished surface.

The Chörten

Despite its early date, the chorten already has a shape that takes precedence in Tibet from the fifteenth century onwards. An hourglass-shaped, multi-cornered throne forms the protective foundation of the structure. Above it, the chörten’s base is formed by three stepped rings, each painted with a different pattern. The dome, sitting on a double lotus base, features the goddess Uṣṇīṣavijayā and the protectors of the three families in the cardinal directions. The dome is topped by the square stepped harmika, which carries the thirteen wheels of a conic spine topped by an umbrella and a sun and moon finial.

The Murals

A mandala of Buddha Akṣobhya directly above the chörten tops the decoration of the cave. It is surrounded by eight great siddhas within a common lotus scroll. The lotus ring on which the mandala sits is also the central blossom of the scrollwork that expands towards the eight siddhas and then across the entire upper part of the cave against its black background. The bottom part of the cave has straight walls, the back wall covered with further murals. Read from left to right, there are the portraits of a teacher, Śākyamuni, Vajradhara, Vajrasattva, and Acala. The right-side wall is covered with a succession of mantras on a common lotus base.

A Stylistic Benchmark

The Luri murals are remarkable for their sophistication. Expertly drawn, proportionate outlines frame the finely shaded figures. Textiles are decorated with fine patterns, indicating their delicate nature, but their ends fall in thick, fleshy folds. The jewellery is delicate, in particular the armlets, and built of multiple layers of colour. Where appropriate, fine scrollwork covers the surfaces, and the backgrounds are covered by flower blossoms. 

In the absence of any direct historical data that would allow for an attribution of the Luri cave, its attribution has to rely on stylistic comparison. Indeed, the close similarities with the most strongly Newar style (Beri) paintings for Tibetan patrons preserved on canvas and at Shalu Monastery, in South-Eastern Tibet (gTsang), and assumptions about the relative chronology and dates of the murals there, resulted in an attribution of Luri to around 1300. However, we have to be aware that this is merely a hypothesis, as none of the comparators can be securely dated and there are not enough dated Kathmandu Valley paintings around that time that could be used as comparison. 

The Luri cave stands at the beginning of the flourish of Beri style murals in Mustang that leads towards the earlier of the two large temples in the regional capital Lo Manthang, the Jampa Lhakhang (Maitreya Temple). A local variant of this style is also documented in recently studied manuscript illuminations preserved locally, some of them predating the Luri cave.  

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Selected Literature

  • Neumann, Helmut F., and Heidi A. Neumann. 2010. “Early Wall Paintings in Lo: Luri Reconsidered.” In Wonders of Lo : The Artistic Heritage of Mustang, edited by Erberto Lo Bue, 64–75. Mumbai: Marg Foundation.
  • Neumann, Helmut F. 1997. “Paintings of the Lori Stūpa in Mustang.” In Tibetan Art, edited by Jane Casey Singer, and Philip Denwood, 178–85, figs. 204. London: Laurence King. 
  • Neumann, Helmut F. 1994. “The Wall Paintings of the Lori Gonpa.” Orientations 25 (11): 79–91.
  • Gutschow, Niels. 1994. “The Chörten of the Cave at Luri.” Ancient Nepal 136 - Special Edition on Mustang: 137–45.

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