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The Ruins of the Guge Dynasty
The Ruins of the Guge Dynasty Guge Kingdom was founded around tenth century by a descendant of King Lang Darma, who fled from Lhasa after the collapse of Tubo Kingdom. The kingdom, playing an important role in the second transmission in Tibet, survived about 700 years and disappeared mysteriously in the 17th century.
The ruins lie at a hilltop near a river, covering 180,000 square meters. Houses, cave dwellings, monasteries and stupas are distributed on the hill and surrounding area. Palaces sat on the summit while monasteries on mountainside, cave dwellings for common people at the foot of the hill. The kingdom was enclosed in tunnels and walls with fortifications. Some structures survive time and remain in good condition in this untraversed region though many of them were reduced into dust. A 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) long water tunnel built with stones, in ruins, still dives from the summit into the river below, which used to be water supply of Guge people.Guge Kingdom is now famous for its murals, sculptures and stone inscriptions, which are attached with those surviving structures. Among them, murals in White Palace, Red Palace, Yamantaka Chapel, Tara Chapel and Mandala Chapel are preserved in good condition. The themes of those murals, hundreds of years old but still splendid, include mainly stories of Buddha, Sakyamuni, Songtsen Gampo, kings of Guge and their ministers. A chapel on the summit of the hill houses a mural depicting male and female Buddhas proceeding Tantric cultivation together, while lower part displaying purgatory with naked, enchanting Dakinis flanking each side. The artistic and aesthetic value of Guge murals is deemed comparable with that of Mogao Caves.The wall of Guge is actually a library of stone inscriptions, which are impressive as well as its murals. Mani stones are scattered around. Most sculptures of Guge style are gold and silver Buddhas.Around the ruins, weapons of Guge people and mummies, probably Guge soliders, have been discovered as a trace of the once glorious kingdom.
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