Palkhor Chode temple and Kubum at Gyantse

Palkhor Chode temple and Kubum at Gyantse

BMR.6.8.131 (Transparency colour)

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Key Information

Photographer

Hugh E. Richardson

Collection

Hugh Richardson

Date of Photo

1936-50

Region

Gyantse > Palkhor Chode

Accession number

BMR.6.8.131

Image Dimensions

60 x 90 mm

View of Gyantse monastery from the south taken from a field to the west of the town. The twenty-foot wall running along the top of the rocky spur above the monastery can clearly be seen as can the Palkhor Chode (dpal 'khor chos sde) temple and the circular Kumbum (sku 'bum) shrine towards the right of the image.

Further Information

Expedition

Hugh E. Richardson

Other Information

Technical Information - The camera used to take this collection of colour slides (Dufay colour) were a Zeiss Super Ikonta and a Reflex Korelle. [KC 09/10/2006]

Manual Catalogues -


Manual Catalogues - Typewritten handlist entitled 'Hugh Richardson Collection, The British Museum. Photographs taken between 1936-50. Cameras: Zeiss Super Ikonta, Reflex Korelle. 300 colour slides (Dufay colour); copies made Jan. 1995.
[no.] 131. Gyantse. View of Palkhor Chode Monastery and Kumbum chorten.' [KC 10/10/2006]

Other Information - Background: Richardson mentions this site in High Peaks, Pure Earth , London: Serindia Publications, 1998, p. 325, " ... the thriving town of Gyantse (Rgyal-rtse) (1936-50), well-placed for trade with both Shigatse (Gzhis-ka-rtse) and Lhasa and on the route to India. It is rich in art and architecture of the fifteenth century created by the Gtsang prince,Rab-brtan kun-bzang 'phags-pa. He enlarged and embellished the temple founded by his father near the rdzong which crowns the summit of the great rock overhanging the town. But his greatest achievements were the enlargement or virtual reconstruction of the Dpal-'khor Chos-sde temple and the building of the magnificent Sku-'bum mchod-rten (1936-50). The former is the heart of a community of monastic college residences spread over an extensive hillside enclosed by a fortified wall. Although the Sa-skya-pa scholl originally predominated, all other religious schools were represented here."

Other Information - Location: F Spencer Chapman describes a view of the monastery at Gyantse in Lhasa: The Holy City, 1938, London: Chatto and Windus, "At the other end of town, on the southern slopes of a rocky amphitheatre, are the various buildings of the Parkor Choide monastery, surrounded by a twenty-foot wall which runs along the top of the rocky spur. The dzong and the monastery, from the summits of the only two eminences of the plain, completely dominate the low white-walled houses of the town, which lie on either side of a rocky saddle connecting them." (p. 49) [KC 11/2/2006]

For Citation use:
The Tibet Album. "Palkhor Chode temple and Kubum at Gyantse" 05 Dec. 2006. The British Museum. <http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_BMR.6.8.131.html>.

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