Architecture in the Himalayan Cold Desert : Ladakh

April 07, 2019

Architecture in the Himalayan Cold Desert : Ladakh

Landscape of Ladakh

Cold Desert Cultural Landscape of India

Architecture in the Himalayan Cold Desert: Ladakh

The harsh-rugged terrain in the Ladakh region of Himalayas has imposed unique settlement challenges to humankind since last a few thousand years ago when the early inhabitants settled along the river Indus. The verdant spaces on both sides of river Indus flourished the dwellers with fertile eroded soils for tilling crops and perpetual availability of water for irrigation and drinking purposes. With the passage of time, ingenious humans developed indigenous construction practices to cope up with harsh cold winds and unavailability of stones and woods, which are undoubtedly the basic construction elements of vernacular architecture techniques prevalent around the globe. In the scarcity of abundant stones, earlier people dwelled inside mountain caves and later locals started building with sun-dried mud blocks and fancy mud plaster and limestone finish. The isolation from the world down south from the Himalayas helped to build a unique architectural vocabulary of Buddhist architecture which is prominent in the Ladakh region.

View of Leh Town

The region constitutes a Cold Desert biome with harsh climatic conditions, which can be attributed to two factors. One is its location on the leeward side of the Himalayas, which makes it a rain-shadow zone inaccessible to the annual southeastern monsoon winds that sweep the rest of the country, thus creating desert conditions with low levels of precipitation. Second is its very high elevation (ranging from 3000 – 5000m ASL) that adds to the coldness in its environment. Ladakh (‘land of the passes’) is one of the most elevated (2,900 m to 5,900 m asl), and coldest regions (from -30°C to -70°C) of the earth. In consonance with the above description, its topography is barren and population sparse inhabited along the river banks of different valleys namely Indus, Nubra, Changthang, Zanskar and Suru. The difficult terrain and climate of the region have shaped the location and nature of settlements that are nestled in valleys near rivulets. With a Gompa atop a neighbouring hillock, the settlements follow specific patterns of layout, architectural vocabulary, façade treatments et al that are high representations of human interaction with such a difficult environment. In addition to the already difficult living conditions, phenomena such as global warming and Himalayan glacier melting are adding to the challenges being faced by the community and threatening their whole way of life.

The basic structure of a Chorten consists of a square foundation symbolizing the earth, a dome symbolizing water, and thirteen tapering steps of enlightenment symbolizing the element of fire. These steps lead to a stylized parasol, the symbol of wind, which is topped in the ethereal sphere by the well-known ‘twin-symbol’ uniting sun and moon, which is the shimmering crown of the Chorten. ( Stupa: Budhanet )

Tibetan Style Chortens

Buddhist religious architecture developed in the Indian subcontinent. Three types of structures are associated with the religious architecture of early Buddhism: monasteries (viharas), places to venerate relics (stupas), and shrines or prayer halls (chaityas, also called chaitya grihas), which later came to be called temples in some places. The Cold Desert Cultural Landscape of India has a large repository of exceptional intangible cultural resources ranging from performing arts, crafts, literary works, customs, myths and beliefs. The “Buddhist chanting of Ladakh: recitation of sacred Buddhist texts in the Trans-Himalayan Ladakh Region, Jammu and Kashmir, India”, is already inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

View of Thiksey Monastery on approach from Leh, lined with Chortens

Gompas are Buddhist ecclesiastical fortifications of learning, lineage and sādhanā that may be understood as a conflation of a fortification, a vihara and a university associated with Tibetan Buddhism and thus common in historical Tibetan regions including parts of China, India, Nepal, Ladakh and Bhutan. Bhutanese dzong architecture is a subset of traditional gompa design. A gompa is a meditation room where practitioners meditate and listen to teachings. Gompas are constructed at a level ground as well as on higher locations on hills. Established by various kings and scholar lamas throughout history, the monasteries of early period comprising a single large hall or several halls, were enclosed by a boundary wall (Cagas-ri) if constrcuted on plain or low hills. On plan, a simple gompa generally comprises three units: a Lha-Khang (assembly hall containing a statue of the protecting deities), a Du-Khang (a room containing sacred image of Buddhist pantheon, and a chair of the owner of the monastery), and a Gon-Khang (a room for depositing monks’ belongings, including masks and weapons used during festivals). Besides, the monstery has a Chamara (a forecourt) which is used to perform various rituals including mask dance, and other monastic activites. In bigger monastic complexes, there may be many more units to serve of the purpose of more chapels, housing Tangyurs (manuscripts), and others.

On elevation, the monastic complex may have a single, double, or more stories. In case of old and more popular monasteries, there are Zimshung (His Holiness’s residential room) which is the private room of the Head Lama. Added to it in big monsteries are Tashaks (small dwelling rooms for laity) attached to the main complex of the monasteries. Tashaks may also be isolated and scattered at a lower level than the monstery. In addition, a monastery may also have a Prayer Wheel, which may be big or small, singular or in a single long row, along the circumambulation path of the monastery for faithfuls to turn the wheels and accumulate merits. Most altars of the big monasteries have on them a neat arragement of silver, jade and amber cups, dorje bells, incense burners which may at times be fashioned like gargyyles, brass and jade figurines, etc. The walls of the monasteries are more or less decorated with frescos depicting Buddhist subjects drawn from Buddha’s life and his ideals. Apart from frescos, walls are also embellished with thankas (paintings on cloth) displaying Jataka stories and other Buddhist themes. An exceptional thanka, believed to be the biggest in the world, having an image of Padmasmbhava in his eight principle forms, and embroider with pearls, is ritually exhibited once in twelve year in the year of “Monkey”, according to the Buddhist Calendar, in Hemis monastery. ( Cold Desert Cultural Landscape of India )

Thikse Monastery is the largest gompa in Ladakh, built in the 1500s. It is a twelve-story complex and houses many items of Buddhist art such as stupas, statues, thangkas, wall paintings and swords.

The traditional flagpole in the courtyard flanked with pray-flags

Adaptive Architecture: Restored Palace complex in Leh. It now functions as a Restaurant and hosts a small museum

The Buddhist Stupa is another form of architecture, comprising a hemispherical dome, a solid structure into which one cannot enter. The stupa is a glorified, beautified, enlarged funerary mound: what was once the resting place of the bones and ashes of a holy man. Stupas were originally more sculpture than building, essentially markers of some holy site or commemorating a holy man who lived there. The Cold Desert region has a unique culture of its own which is an amalgamation of Indian and Tibetan influences, is reflective in the form of Buddhism practised here and further manifest in its art, architecture, lifestyle, food, clothing, dance, music et al. The proposed property provides an exceptional testimony to this cultural tradition which has evolved over centuries and is living.