The Collection of Namgyal Monastery, Mustang, Nepal, in Transition
By Christian Luczanits
Monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism across the Himalayas traditionally amass vast collections through commissions and donations, often preserving centuries of portable heritage. This is particularly true for the main monasteries of the divers Tibetan Buddhist schools, but even smaller institutions may preserve substantial collections of books, sculptures, and other items.
Namgyal Monastery in the Mustang region of Nepal is one such relatively minor institution, the historical prominence of which resulted in a comparatively vast collection of considerable antiquity and value. I have introduced some highlights from this collection in a two-part article in the past (Luczanits, 2016a; Luczanits, 2016b) and aspects of the collection have already been assessed in great detail (Bellini, 2020; Luczanits, 2021; Luczanits and Viehbeck, 2021; Cammarota, forthcoming; Klohe, forthcoming). This essay therefore focuses on the collection’s history, the networks of relations it evidences, the current transition in the usage and presentation of the collection, and how this transition relates to the question of museums at Tibetan monasteries more broadly (see Tythacott and Bellini, 2020 and Luczanits and Tythacott, forthcoming).
Figure 1: View of Namgyal Monastery in 2010 before its reconstruction.
The documentation and assessment of the Namgyal collection continues to be a major part of an ongoing research project on Tibetan Buddhist Monastery Collections Today, which from 2016–2020 was supported by an AHRC research grant (Grant Ref: AH/N00681X/1). The project also supports the monastery in all object-related aspects, in particular the display of the collection in the new Lamdré Lhakhang (see below) and the museum it is about to establish, both of which will be accessible to the public after the inauguration of the new premises in July 2023.
Figure 2: The interior of the old temple of Namgyal in May 2012 with the altar filled with sculptures and flanked by books.
The Formation of a Collection
The core of Namgyal’s collection was established during the emergence of the Mustang kingdom in the fifteenth century. Namgyal Monastery existed prior to that time, but there is no reliable information about it, and neither its founding date nor its original religious affiliation are known today. However, during his second sojourn to Mustang (1436–1437) the extremely influential Tibetan scholar Ngorchen Künga Zangpo (ngor chen kun dga' bzang po, 1382–1456) expanded the monastery by merging three smaller monastic institutions. It is likely that some of their collections were transferred as well, including the two text collections published in Luczanits and Viehbeck, 2021, as they predate this event. By the time of Ngorchen’s final visit (1447–1449) the monastic community is said to have increased to about one thousand monks. It is further reported that objects were brought to Namgyal from nearby Nyamdrok Monastery (nyams 'brog dgon pa), after it had been destroyed by an earthquake.
Figure 3: Two portraits of Ngorchen Künga Zangpo (1382–1456); left: Mustang c. 1500, metal alloy, 8 x 6 x 5 cm; right: Mustang, 17th century (?); 84 x 71 x 47 cm.
In the following hundred years, from the mid-fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century, Namgyal not only hosted a number of renown scholars as teachers and abbots but also was closely linked to the ruling elite. In 1477, the famous scholar Lobo Khenchen Sönam Lhündrup (glo bo mkhan chen bsod nams lhun grub, 1456–1532), son of the Mustang king Agön Zangpo (a mgon bzang po, 1420–1482), was appointed as abbot and served in this position for a period of twelve years. His sculptural portrait as well as those of other royal monks are preserved in the collection. The collection further evidences a close connection to the family of the minister Tséwang Zangpo (tshe dbang bzang po), who donated a major group of sculptures to the monastery, and whose son, the Jonang scholar Künga Drolchok (kun dga' grol mchog; 1507–1566), is commemorated by an inscribed chörten (the Tibetan term for stūpa) preserved at the monastery. Together, the Ngor lama, the king and the minister, are collectively called the “three Zangpos” (bzang po rnam gsum) and represent the apex of the Mustang kingdom.
Figure 4: Fourth abbot of Ngor Monastery, Künga Wangchuk, (1424–1478), the last figure in the Lamdré set commissioned by the minister Tséwang Zangpo; Mustang, c. 1480; cast metal alloy with silver and copper inlays; 29 x 19 x 14 cm.
Major donations to the monastery can further be linked to the activities of the fourth abbot of Ngor Monastery, Künga Wangchuk (kun dga’ dbang phyug; 1424–1478) who died in Mustang in 1478 after initiating more than a thousand people into the “Path with the Fruit” (lamdré; lam ‘bras), the main teaching of the Sakya and Ngor schools. It is the oral transmission lineage of this teaching, represented through portraiture, that takes up the majority of the sculptural heritage of the monastery. Accordingly, the monastery features a temple dedicated to these sculptures, the so-called Lamdré Lhakhang (lam ‘bras lha khang). Some of these sculpture sets are made in different variations of papier mâché, the largest one almost reaching life-size, and to some of these sets additional teacher portraits have been added over time. Also sets of preciously produced manuscripts have been donated to the monastery and are preserved in its library (Cammarota, forthcoming).
Figure 5: The great adept Avadhūtipa of the largest Lamdré lineage set in papier mâché; Mustang; sixteenth century; papier-mâché with polychromy; 72 x 51 x 51 cm.
Subsequent to the flourishing of the Mustang kingdom in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Namgyal’s position appears to have waned and additions to the collection are largely of lesser significance and quality. Donations of the royal house of Upper Mustang (the kingdom split in the meantime) focused elsewhere.
Networks of Relations
As is evident from the account above, the Namgyal collection is intimately related to the fortunes of the Mustang kingdom, but its connections go far beyond it both temporally and geographically.
Some of the earliest items in the collection come from the Kashmir region and date to the tenth and eleventh centuries. At that time Kashmir was one of the main artistic centres of Buddhist art and had a major impact on West Tibetan connoisseurship and artistic production (Linrothe, 2014). In the Tibetan geographical understanding, Mustang is considered part of western Tibet, but more decisive are the historical connections between the diverse West Tibetan dominions and the Mustang kingdom through alliances and rivalries. In fact, all West Tibetan items in the Namgyal collection date to periods in which there was a strong West Tibetan kingdom, that is either the eleventh and twelfth centuries or paralleling the Mustang kingdom.
Figure 6: Crowned and caped Buddha Śākyamuni flanked by the Bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara and Vajrapāṇi; Kashmir or West Tibet, eleventh century; metal alloy with silver and copper inlay; Buddha, 39 x 18 x 8.5 cm, flanking Bodhisattvas, 37 x 17 x 8 cm.
Prior to the emergence of the Mustang kingdom the region appears to have been part of divers Tibetan or Nepali realms. Among the latter, the Khassa Malla kingdom, which flourished in West Nepal in the thirteenth and fourteenth century, is most strongly reflected in the collection, with many gilded Buddha images stemming from that period. However, the variation in the sculptural production from this period and its spread through all collections documented in the region so far, point towards a broad sculptural trend of the time rather than a distinct source.
Figure 7: Two Buddhas performing the earth touching gesture, the left one bejewelled; Nepal, 13th-14th centuries; gilt copper alloy, left with turquoise inlays; left 29.5 x 22 x 16, right 36 x 33.5 x 26 cm.
Surprisingly, the Namgyal collection also preserves an item from this period linking it directly to the Chinese imperial court. Among the fragmentary printed manuscripts is a Mongol xylograph (hor par ma) of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya commissioned by Empress Bulukhan (Tib. ’Bol gan/ Bhol gan), wife of Temür Öljeytü Khan (alias Chengzong, r. 1294–1307), in 1299, one of the earliest printed manuscripts in Tibetan (Sernesi, 2020).
Figure 8: Two folios of the Tibetan version of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya commissioned by Empress Bulukhan in 1299; ink on paper, folios c. 64.5 x 11.7 cm.
A wider network of sources can also be observed with the two early text collections at Namgyal (Luczanits and Viehbeck, 2021). While these two collections are preserved in exceptional condition, in terms of relations they can be taken as representative for the region at large. Generally, the illuminated manuscripts found throughout the region are particularly telling, with the depictions evidencing a much broader set of relations than the texts alone. There are also indications that such illuminated manuscripts were produced locally, as certain types of depictions and text collections appear to be unique to the region.
Figure 9: The illuminated folios of volume 26 (la) of the Sutra Collection showing the wealth deities Jambhala, Black Jambhala, Vasudhārā and Gaṇapati; Lower Mustang, late 13th century; ink and pigments on paper; folio size c. 21 x 67 cm.
As in the earliest monuments preserved in Mustang the donor depictions found in the manuscripts often focus on single religious figures. This indicates that prior to the Mustang kingdom religious life was led by charismatic personalities rather than large monastic institutions. Further, several different Tibetan Buddhist schools as well as Bon religion flourished side by side at that time. The Namgyal Sutra Collection provides an exception in this regard, with a group of four monks represented in the first of three preserved donor depictions.
Figure 10: The last folio of volume 27 (sha) of the Sutra Collection containing the first donor depiction; Lower Mustang, late 13th century; ink and pigments on paper; folio size c. 21 x 67 cm.
With the Mustang kingdom wider relationships to Tibet and beyond become dominant. Sculptures and manuscripts preserved from that time are in a style generally associated with the south Tibetan region (Tsang, gtsang), the domain of the Sakya school and its Ngor sub-branch. Precious books are then written in gold and/or silver on black paper, and their covers are intricately carved and painted. Outstanding among the latter are a group of covers the interior face of which is decorated with gold relief painting on red, these are the subject of Cammarota, forthcoming.
Figure 11: Bottom cover of a dhāraṇī (gzung) volume with Indra flanked by the four great kings on the inner face; South Central Tibet (Tsang), late sixteenth century; 66 x 22 x 3.2 cm.
One such cover painted in polychrome is evidence of a new painting style emerging in the South-Central Tibetan region (Luczanits, 2021). It further loosely relates to a fascinating painted scroll depicting the eight cemeteries surrounding the mandala palace of Hevajra, the main deity of the Sakya and Ngor schools (Bellini, 2020).
Figure 12: Rare depiction of a sky burial on a painted scroll used in mandala rituals; South Central Tibet (Tsang), around 1600; h. 20 cm, original length of the scroll c. 840 meters.
These are just the historically most outstanding wider connections the collection reveals, among which those within Mustang are most telling. The documentation of the collections of Namgyal and other monasteries in the region hints strongly towards local production centres not documented so far. There are also a few named artists that hopefully can be traced further in future.
A Collection in Transition
Traditionally, collections of Tibetan monasteries are part of their furnishings. Altars are often filled with sculptures, many of them obscured by others, and manuscripts representing the words of the Buddha commonly flank the altar. Traditional inventories, as they are recorded for the transition from one caretaker to the next, often only list the number of items by type, and rarely note information about individual objects. Therefore, those caring for the monastery commonly do not know much about the content of the collection or the age of individual objects, but they may single out certain objects as particularly relevant because of an orally transmitted story around them. This also describes the situation at Namgyal; before this project started documenting and inventorying its collection very few of the details and connections summarised above were known.
Figure 13: View of a section of the original altar filled with sculptures and chörten as documented in 2012.
At Namgyal, the sculptures were housed on the altar of the assembly hall and in its Lamdré Lhakhang (lam ‘bras lha khang). The ancient manuscripts flanked the altar in the assembly hall that also featured the most important chörten. Further sculptures, books, paintings, and ritual items may have been housed in the rooms of different monastics or stored in boxes, but there is no detailed record in this regard. The monastery also preserved a number of ancient utilitarian items and curios.
The project started its work at Namgyal in 2012, just when the monastery began rebuilding its monastic quarters around its main temple. Already at that time, the monastery’s abbot, Khenpo Tsewang Rigzin, planned to establish a museum to display the utilitarian items and the curios, and these were the first that he allowed to be documented. The documentation of other parts of the collection over successive years then revealed the actual extent and value of the collection to the abbot, and his perspective changed somewhat over time. The 2015 earthquake then also triggered the rebuilding of the temple itself, this time using traditional building methods.
Figure 14: View of Namgyal Monastery from Lo Manthang in September 2022, the red building in the foreground is the museum.
The distribution of the collection in the new premises has been a matter of discussion throughout the renewal period and has been settled as follows. Most of the ancient metal sculpture and chörten are being displayed within a wooden shrine in the main niche of the main temple. As many are shown high up within that space, visitors will not be able to appreciate the quality of these objects, provided they can see them at all. Like the books which flank the main niche, they bestow blessings by their mere presence. The papier mâché images of the Lamdré teaching transmission are again displayed in a dedicated space, which is now located above the porch leading to the main temple. Here the images are placed on a stepped base built along the walls. This display follows the previous one, but the images are now displayed in their succession and the room is more spacious.
Figure 15: The new Lamdré Lhakhang with papier-mâché sculptures of different sizes.
A two-room museum building has been created in front of the temple with external funding. While the monastery has planned this space without the involvement of our project, it has approached us to come up with a concept for its display. The latter is now guided by an educational arrangement leading from utilitarian items to the variety of deities characteristic of Tibetan Buddhism. The objects it displays are chosen to emphasise their variety, but for the deities papier mâché, clay and wooden images must be used predominantly. Illuminated manuscripts and painted scrolls (Bellini, 2020) are included on a rotating basis.
Tibetan Monastery Museums
Since the 1990s Tibetan monasteries have included dedicated museum spaces in their premises. Meanwhile, monastery museums can be found across the Himalayas, but the motivations leading to them vary greatly. Broadly they may be the result of several of the following motives in different combinations:
to enable the selling of tickets,
to directly speak to the interests of visitors who do not come for worship, that is tourists,
to utilise objects out of use,
to display curio items,
to create a secure space for objects of high religious and/or commercial value,
to make these objects accessible to worshipers again,
to educate locals and/or visitors
to fulfil a task set by religious leadership.
At Namgyal, the need to create a museum is guided not by the collection, but by the realisation that once the monastery is completely rebuilt it needs something else to remain attractive to the visitors who come to nearby Lo Manthang, the capital city of the region. Since the 1990s, income from selling entry tickets to tourists has become an increasingly important revenue stream for monasteries across the Himalayas.
It may, thus, not be accidental that the new museum building at Namgyal is directly visible from Lo Manthang. Placed at an angle in front of the other monastery buildings it is spatially separated. The monastery used the traditional building technique for the building, and created two rooms with four windows each on ground floor level. These factors create a security issue and exclude that the most valuable objects of the monastery can be displayed there.
Typically, monastery museums are housed in repurposed spaces, but increasingly they are placed in new structures. In the experience of our project, these newly built structures are nevertheless not planned with the needs of a museum in mind. Accordingly, planning a display for a monastery museum often includes major challenges in terms of arrangement, security and lighting that need to be overcome (see the chapters by Bloom and Rieuf in Luczanits and Tythacott, forthcoming).
Lighting is an issue that concerns all modern display spaces in the Himalayas, where sunlight reaches extremely high UV levels. At Namgyal the papier mâché sculptures of the new Lamdré Lhakhang are placed in a room with a window front facing the east. Accordingly, the morning light exposure of the sculptures needs to be managed from the interior by introducing curtains or other protective measures to avoid damage to the sculptures from long term exposure.
Regardless of whether their structure is modern or not, monastery museums are invariably seen as an integral parts of the monastery. At Namgyal the main temple, the Lamdré Lhakhang, and the museum complement each other to house the collection and make it accessible to visitors. Thereby, the integration of a museum does not mean that the maintenance and management of the collection has modernised in any way. In fact, this project has not come across any Tibetan Buddhist monastery that has changed its collection management, and all attempts to encourage museum style collection management have failed. So far, monastery museums also lack dedicated personnel and training, the monks in charge of the museum rotating as they do for other tasks.
Tibetan monastery museums are, thus, still very much in a stage of development. While the spaces may have partially been adapted, the procedures around collections have not. Thus, it is the outward facing element of a museum that is being adopted first by Tibetan monasteries. This is, of course, also true for Namgyal Monastery, which represents a specific instance in this process. However, in contrast to other monasteries, Namgyal also decided to make its collection accessible through publication, and it may well become a model in this regard.
Bibliography
Bellini, Chiara. 2020. Surrounding the Sacred Space: Two Painted Scrolls from the Collection of Namgyal Monastery in Mustang, Nepal. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1-44.
Cammarota, Isabella. forthcoming. Making Tibetan books: A study of the gold and red book covers in the library of Namgyal Monastery, Mustang, Nepal. In Tibetan Monastery Collections and Museums. Traditional Practices and Contemporary Issues, eds. Christian Luczanits, and Louise Tythacott, Kathmandu, Nepal: Vajra Books.
Klohe, Hans Werner. forthcoming. The Lamdré Lineage Set by Donor Lodrö Gyeltsen in the Collection of Namgyal Monastery, Mustang, Nepal. In Tibetan Monastery Collections and Museums. Traditional Practices and Contemporary Issues, eds. Christian Luczanits, and Louise Tythacott, Kathmandu, Nepal: Vajra Books.
Linrothe, Rob. 2014. Collecting Paradise. Buddhist Art of Kashmir and Its Legacies. New York & Evanston: Rubin Museum of Art and Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.
Luczanits, Christian. 2016 a. Portable Heritage in the Himalayas. The Example of Namgyal Monastery, Mustang: Part 1, Sculpture. Orientations 47, no. 2: 120-130.
Luczanits, Christian. 2016 b. Portable Heritage in the Himalayas. The Example of Namgyal Monastery, Mustang: Part 2, Books and Stupas. Orientations 47, no. 5: 22-32.
Luczanits, Christian. 2021. A Case of Old Menri (sman ris rnying pa) in Mustang? In Gateways to Tibetan Studies: A Collection of Essays in Honour of David P. Jackson on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, eds. Volker Caumanns, Jörg Heimbel, Kazuo Kano, and Alexander Schiller, 643-657. Hamburg: Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg.
Luczanits, Christian, and Louise Tythacott, eds. forthcoming. Tibetan Monastery Collections and Museums: Traditional Practices and Contemporary Issues. Vajra Academic. Kathmandu: Vajra Books.
Luczanits, Christian, and Markus Viehbeck. 2021. Two Illuminated Text Collections of Namgyal Monastery. A Study of Early Buddhist Art and Literature in Mustang. Vajra Academic. Kathmandu, Nepal: Vajra Books.
Sernesi, Marta. 2020. A Mongol Xylograph (hor par ma) of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya. In Archaeologies of the Written: Indian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies in Honour of Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, eds. Vincent Tournier, Vincent Eltschinger, and Marta Sernesi, 527-549. Naples: Universita degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”.
Tythacott, Louise, and Chiara Bellini. 2020. Deity and Display: Meanings, Transformations, and Exhibitions of Tibetan Buddhist Objects. Religions 11, no. 3: 106 (29 pages).
All photographs by the author and courtesy of Namgyal Monastery.
Christian Luczanits is David L. Snellgrove Senior Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art at the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His research focuses on Buddhist art of India and Tibet, in particular Gandhāran and early western Himalayan art, the latter largely based on extensive field research and documentation done in situ. Christian Luczanits also held visiting professorships at UC Berkeley in 2004/05 (Freeman), at Free University in Berlin 2006–08, and at Stanford University and UC Berkeley (Numata) in the first half of 2010. Before joining SOAS he has been Senior Curator at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. Since joining SOAS he has lead an AHRC-funded research project on “Tibetan Buddhist Monastery Collections Today”.
