The Guru Lhakhang is a simple small room with the walls painted. There is a small altar but with no original sculptures and there are no woodcarvings at the capitals or the door.
Generally the remaining murals are bright and in good condition. There are some major damages from earlier water seepage which partly have been consolidated some time ago.
On the bottom of the right wall a larger part is broken out due to humidity of the wall.
Major damages today are flaking off and/or bulging murals possibly due to the weight of the beams and cross-beams. The Mahåkala panel on the entrance wall and the panels three and four on the left wall (Håyagr¥va and Vajrasattva/Vajrapåˆi), both places were earlier water seepage took place, are covered with gray dust. Otherwise the paintings are perfectly bright.
Several places are hollow underneath, but the painting surface is compact enough that currently no damages need to be expected. At several places parts of the murals are about to flake off; at the entrance wall above the Mahåkala and to the right of it where a water seepage occurred in the middle of the wall; around the damages on the left wall particularly in the upper left corner where paintings have already flaked off; on the main wall to the left above the main Buddha image were a large crack has been filled with Silicon. There are places of recent Silicon fillings were cracks have developed. The Silicon made the cracks more apparent, as it gave the mud and the painting a darker color as if it would be wet. In addition it was applied so primitively and crudely that it also damaged part of the painting surface to the sides of the cracks. There is no doubt that this application has been done during the renovation of this year.[...]

Text: Christian Luczanits
Fotos: Holger Neuwirth / Carmen Auer