Estelle ATLAN alias Nawang Jinpa

Hemis and Chemrey are two Buddhist monastic seats in the very high Himalayas of Ladakh. While they maintain their traditional functions, they lately created exhibition halls displaying fabulous collections from their 'treasure rooms'. The display is exemplary and the objects stunning in terms of quality. In 2015, an elaborate documentation process was initiated, offering many possibilities for cultural preservation and cultural action in a social context of radical mutation and acculturation. The challenges are however numerous, lying most crucially in capacity-building through collaborations that must involve various knowledge-holders --local and international--, and in developing new perspectives on local education.

In July 1679, the Ganden Phodrang government in Central Tibet launched a war against Ladakh. The operation was led by Ganden Tsewang (1644-1697), a Mongol prince, grandson of the Gushri Khan (1582-1655) who had conquered Eastern and Central Tibet some decades earlier through a series of military campaigns on behalf of the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682). After a four-year military stalemate, Ladakh eventually succeeded in pushing back the Tibetan/Mongol armies with the help of Mughal forces from Kashmir.
In this paper I take a close look at the origins of the war, attempting to use
a broad range of sources, and drawing on my research on the Drukpa
heritage in Ladakh. I address five main themes:
• the political and religious situation in Ladakh and the wider western Himalayan region of Ngari before the war, and the claims that its rulers were sectarian;
• developments in Central Tibet leading up to the war, and the Ganden Phodrang’s attempts to establish Gelug hegemony;
• the Bhutan question and the ‘threat’ that the Drukpa overall posed to the
Ganden Phodrang;
• possible economic motives for the war; and
• the aftermath of the war.

By addressing these themes, I hope to show that the generally accepted
reasons for the attack are inadequate, and to present a more nuanced view of
the complex political and religious powerplay that contributed to the conflict. In
particular, I present a more balanced view of the Ladakhi monarchy and its
relationship with the various religious schools prevailing in the Himalayas.

I have decided to tentatively upload here my recent and very short PowerPoint presentation about the joys and challenges of our work at Chemre and Hemis Monasteries, Leh, Ladakh. It's hopefully a way to keep our friends and colleagues informed about what is happening up there, what we are trying to do with the blessings of HH Gyalwang Drukpa, and maybe to inspire you to assist this development and /or provide some help (technical, conceptual, scientific, financial, whatever!). Also and essentially a way to thank all those who have embarked in any way with us on that important, meaningful and challenging project.

This was presented on Tuesday 8th September 2015 in New Delhi, National Museum Institute, at the International Conference of CIDOC, the Documentation Committee of  ICOM, the International Council of Museums. The topic was "Strategies for Documenting the Diversity of Culture". Thanks!

The Drukpa heritage in Ladakh consists of over 200 shrines, a cultural legacy spanning 1000 years of history and profound and long lasting connections with the entire Western Himalayas. This heritage is presented in a large book (several volumes) to be published in late 2019.
Here is a working document: the summary that introduces the raw book draft (version 0.2), its organisation, sections, size and content.

ln the high Indian Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh, Lahaul is a major centre of pilgrim-
age renowned throughout North India and Tibet. It has been a magnet for legendary
mahasiddhas, yogis and pilgrims for thousands of years and is still venerated by Buddhists and also by Hindus. In the folds of the impressive landscape, the
most profound spiritual transmission is preserved.
For the first time, a guide book introduces to the public the sacredness of the valley, traditionally called "Garsha, the Land of the Dakinis." This booklet also reveals little known stories based on local traditions and ancient scriptures.
With a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and a foreword by His Holiness
the Gyalwang Drukpa.

Paper presentation abstract for the academic symposium co-organised by the University of Hong Kong and Italian Cultural Institute and hosted by the University of Hong Kong on 5 August 2022 on "Giuseppe Tucci, his adventurous life, and his scholarly legacy"

In Ladakh, two ancient and important Buddhist monasteries have recently opened exhibitions halls: Hemis Museum in 2006 and Chemde Museum in 2009. To art historians, these openings represent a mile stone for the presentation of the heritage of Ladakh. Yet, initially these halls were not specially designed for the appreciation of art historians. They are called sku rten khang in the local language, titled 'museum' in English, but a more literal translation could arguably best be 'exhibition temples'. The original wording includes honorific reverence to the 'divine' or Buddha's enlightened state, stressing the continuity and integration of the exhibition within the usual traditional monastic functions—intangible social and religious dynamics and practices. Here, material presence is chiefly a support (sku rten) for the cultural or spiritual action of upholding and conveying streams of blessings. Indeed, the museums have not been conceived as separate institutions with distinct collections managed by distinct staff with distinct budgets. Although unique, they are only modern extensions of the monasteries, among other modern extensions such as new monastic schools, solar generators, car parkings, etc. Managed by the same monks who also tend to other temples and shrines, their central purpose is to facilitate the public's encounter with objects of high spiritual and cultural value in a setting both more secure and more simple than the usual temples, where the lay public may be welcome but remains secondary as a rule. As these 'exhibition temples' develop, questions also arise because the significance and status of the objects displayed is at great variance depending on the public and developing partners, local or international, Buddhist or foreign. In particular, the intimate connection between exhibited objects and their monasteries cannot match the status that similar objects have in the West in any gallery that exhibits 'Buddhist art' out of their original context.

Introduction

In 1631, the Jesuit missionary Francisco de Azevedo, one of the very first Westerners to enter Ladakh, visited Hanle, in the remote highlands of Chang-thang. Whereas currently Hanle is restricted to foreigners due to its location near the disputed Indo-Chinese border, the aristocratic Portuguese was then able to report that there lived the highest and much revered spiritual authority in the kingdom: “the Pope of Ladakh.”  This was a Tibetan contemplative Drukpa (‘brug pa) yogi, the First Taktsang Repa (Stag-tshang Ras-pa, 1574-1652). 

His authority in the region was granted by the Dharma King (chos rgyal) Senge Namgyal (r. c. 1624-1642), the ruler who evolved as the most powerful and cherished king of Ladakh, brilliantly protecting, expanding and developing the kingdom and asserting his authority over all Ngari Korsum.  Under his patronage, Taktsang Repa founded a yogic centre in 1630 at Hemis in Central Ladakh. Whereas he also established several other shrines, Hemis eventually became the seat of his incarnation line and the symbol of religious authority in the region, growing over centuries as the biggest and richest monastery of Ladakh, and probably of the whole western Himalayas. Today it is still connected to several hundred Drukpa shrines in Ladakh and beyond, in West Tibet and Indian Himachal Pradesh.

A Museum was created in Hemis in 2007. In the midst of its stunning collection stands an extraordinary painted silk scroll document from 1943, which deals with the Sixth Taktsang Incarnate (1941-present). Hemis monks introduce that scroll as his official recognition by the 14th Dalai Lama, but this Tulku (sprul-sku, incarnate master), which they traditionally call Kyabgon (sKyab-mgon or “Protector and Refuge”), is yet an elusive figure. Forced to remain in Tibet since the Chinese crackdown of 1959 over 60 years ago, he is hardly known to the present generations of Ladakhis. The supreme significance of his successive incarnations is therefore fading in Ladakh, and has been little investigated by international scholars.

This article is primarily a study of the Hemis silk scroll and the stories it tells, presented at the IALS Conference in Kargil in 2015. However, an earlier document from 1896, a copy of which is preserved in the British Library, appears to be very related. Both authored by the Dalai Lama of their time, these texts express retrospective praises of the incarnation line of Taktsang Repa and list special honorific titles and attributes bestowed to the living incarnation—the Fifth Incarnate in 1896, the Sixth in 1943. Yet although Taktsang Rinpoche is essentially a spiritual leader, both also deviate in chorus to mention military cooperation and official missions instituted by the Peace Treaty between Tibet and Ladakh signed in 1684: the Lopchak (lo phyag) mission from Leh to Lhasa, and the Shungtsong (gzhung tshong) mission from Lhasa to Leh. Probably based on earlier exchanges, these missions linked diplomatically and commercially the two countries until 1959.  The documents in praise of the Taktsang incarnation lineage thus reflect in unison the relationship history of two major Himalayan Buddhist countries in the intricate matters of religion, politics and trade.