Tabo

Tabo (ཏ་པོ་), a medium-size village in the lower Spiti valley, is famous for its monastery. The sacred compound or monastic complex (chökhor, ཆོས་འཁོར་) is situated on the plain in front of the village. The large old monastery contains nine temples from various periods within the old sacred enclosure. In recent decades, new temples and living buildings have been added to the east of the old complex.

Of the nine temples within the old sacred enclosure the Main Temple (གཙུག་་ལག་ཁང་) is attributable to the late 10th century, while the other temples in their present state of preservation range from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Although some earlier remains, such as painted chörten, carved wooden door-frames, and stone bases of pillars are preserved in the other monuments as well, some of these most likely represent cases of re-usage.

Tabo was the first monastery in the western Himalayas to become the focus of extensive scholarly research, several reports about Tabo monastery and particularly its oldest temple, the Main Temple, having been published as early as 1935 by Giuseppe Tucci. Only in recent years has it again been possible for non-Indians to resume research there. A detailed study of the monastery was possible thanks to permission from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the helpful and understanding attitude of the abbot and monks of Tabo.

Painted Chörten

In 1994, I photographed the painted chambers of two chörten that have since been sealed. These chörten document the strong impact of Nyingma teachings in the second half of the thirteenth century and preserve some of the earliest depictions of Padmasambhava. Unfortunately, neither monument is well preserved, and both show intentional damage to the main figures. The murals are therefore difficult to decipher with any certainty.

In the larger chörten, Padmasambhava is flanked by eight mahāsiddha, each holding a skull cup. Other notable paintings in this chörten include esoteric Buddhas in yab yum, six of the eight medicine Buddhas, a range of teacher depictions, Vajrakīlaya, and a raven-headed protector with an attendant. The colour palette of these murals remains dominated by blue.

The smaller chörten makes clear that the esoteric Buddhas on the left wall belong to the forty-two peaceful deities of the Guhyagarbha Tantra. The main wall depicts Buddha Śākyamuni flanked by two Bodhisattvas and additional Buddhas, possibly the eight medicine Buddhas, which are more prominently shown in the top corners. On the right side wall, Padmasambhava is flanked by eight pairs of figures, at least one of whom wears the same hat. Together with Amitābha and Ṣaḍakṣara Lokeśvara to his left, his three bodies are also represented. To the right are two three-headed, six-armed Herukas with consorts, topped by a lineage. On the entry wall, six local protectresses riding animals are above the door, and four wrathful deities flank it. The colour palette of these murals is dominated by red.

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A Vajradhātu Maṇḍala in a Prajñāpāramitā Manuscript

A Prajñāpāramitā manuscript in the Tabo collection (Running No. 5, a Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā) contains twenty-eight illuminated folios — more than all other illustrated Tabo manuscripts combined. Rather than depicting scenes from the text, the illuminations represent the deities of the Vajradhātu maṇḍala — the five esoteric Buddhas together with their Bodhisattvas, offering goddesses, and gatekeepers — each figure positioned on the page so as to mirror its place within the maṇḍala assembly. Detailed cataloguing and iconographic analysis, supported by Tibetan captions inscribed beneath the images, permits the identification of each deity, and reveals that the correspondence between maṇḍala structure and page layout across successive chapter endings is without known parallel in Indian manuscript traditions. A narrative cycle depicting the Bodhisattva Sadāprarudita, and repeated representations of unidentified Buddhas, appear in the manuscript's later chapters, giving the work an unusual thematic breadth within the surviving Tabo corpus.

Comparison with the Vajradhātu assembly of the Tabo Assembly Hall, the Alchi monuments, the Nako temples, and the Khartse cave establishes that the manuscript's iconography diverges significantly from the mid-eleventh-century Main Temple programme, pointing instead to the second half of the twelfth century. Stylistically, the illuminations resemble the manner of the Nako Translator's Temple murals and a Prajñāpāramitā manuscript from Pooh village, and were clearly executed by workshop pupils rather than master artists. The article's broader significance lies in demonstrating that illustrated manuscripts from Tabo span at least three centuries, that manuscript illumination in the western Himalayas was a sustained and evolving tradition, and that the iconographic evidence of such manuscripts can refine the regional artistic networks otherwise traced through architectural painting and sculpture.