the temple ruin of basgo

The village of Basgo is situated 42 km western of Leh and includes today about 150 houses and an imposant castle on the top of the Basgo hill. Basgo was once the centre of the West Ladakh kingdom that took place about 400 years. The temple ruin can be found next to the main road in the east of the village. The main structure is a square hall flanked from two closed rooms on each side of the entrance.

the attribution of the ruin (by Christian Luczanits)

This structure preserves the plugholes and halo remains of the deities of a Vajradhatumandala distributed on the back and the side walls. As in the Tabo main temple (Klimburg-Salter 1997) the central Vairocana with the four accompanying goddessesmust have occupied a throne in the centre of the room. On the back wall, two Jinas are each accompanied
by four attendant Bodhisattvas, and four offering goddesses have been placed between them, the different deities clearly differentiated by the respective size of the halos. On the sidewalls, the central Jina, seated on a more elaborate throne base, is flanked by four attendant Bodhisattvas with a further two goddesses above and two gatekeepers below.
Further, the full modelling of the circular halos and their relationship to the pegs that once held the figures compares best to the mid-11th century sculptures of the Tabo Assembly Hall. The upper peg holding the image is places in the centre of the halo, and the lower peg just at its bottom edge. Below that, two separate pegs once held the the lotuses of the secondary images. In the case of the Jinas, six pegs in two parallel rows of three held a more elaborate throne that included their vehicles. These factors alone, and their comparison to the constructions found at other western Himalayan sites such as Tabo, Nako, Lalung and the Alchi group of monuments, make it possible to attribute this temple ruin to the middle or second half of the 11th century.

Fotos: H. Neuwirth / C. Auer
Maps: Field research 2004