Nyar ma monastery lies in the Indus Valley south of Khrig rtse monastery in Ladakh, India. According to the tradition it was founded by Rin chen bzang po (958-1055), and it was probably his largest and most important foundation in this region (Snellgrove and Skorupski 1977: 19; Snellgrove and Skorupski 1980: 91). Due to the total removal of the individual temples' roofs in the past, the compound has been completely neglected and thus remained largely unstudied by scholars of Himalayan art. Apart from a few traces of paint and fragments of mandorlas, all the artistic decorations, such as murals and sculptures, have been destroyed by wind and rain. Despite the compound's dilapidated condition, the remaining walls of the five temples, about a dozen mchod rten and the fragments of the former compound wall manage to give an impressive insight into the former sacred area (Figs. 1, 2). These provide precious sources of information for the study of ancient Buddhist architecture in the western Himalayas. It is noteworthy that the buildings in Nyar ma were erected with an extraordinary precision. This has facilitated the accurate measurement of the extant architectural elements and the conceptual analysis of the layout and geometric patterns. This article concentrates on two buildings within the compound: (1) The Nyar ma Main Temple (NMT), a large complex consisting of many parts, situated in the northwest, which appears to be the most important temple. (2) The Mchod rten Temple (CT), situated in the southern part of the walled compound, contains segments of a mchod rten inside its cella area. By utilising these two monuments as examples, the present article will study the geometry of the architectural forms and reconstruct the process of their architectural design in order to examine the transformation of the ideal Buddhist conceptualisation of space, the ma ala, into an architectural plan.

The small temple of Triloknath, also called Re phag, is spectacularly located at the edge of a cliff high above the Chandrabhaga River in Lahul and a popular pilgrimage center for both Hindus and Buddhists. The temple complex tries to fulfill the demands of both religious groups and contains a wide courtyard, decorated with Śiva-symbols as well as Buddhist prayer flags, a liṅgam shrine and a chapel with a huge prayer-wheel. The temple itself possesses a modern anteroom that leads to the old, original part of the monument, namely the sanctum with a square ground plan, of the Nāgara type with a rather massive śikhara and a richly decorated doorway. A careful art historical and architectural analysis of the building reveals that Buddhist elements, such as Buddha-figures in the brackets of the columns and vajramotifs, as well as the main image, a special form of an Avalokiteśvara, indicate the Buddhist origin of the temple, probably before the tenth century. However, the simple Nāgara structure with the spire, and later additions to the monument, also attract Hindu pilgrims and make the Triloknath temple one of the most famous pilgrimage centres in the Himalayan area.

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For more than two hundred years, the Nubra valley of Ladakh has been pervaded by a socio-religious network that is related to the Nyingmapa tradition and existed beside the large-scale monastic system of the dominant Gelugpa. This system manifested itself in a two-fold manner. First, through a selected group of families whose members were “astrologers” (Tib. onpos) and sometimes also “traditional medical practitioners” (Tib. amchis). Second, the system took shape through a number of stupas which shared a specific iconographic topic: the “zhitro” mandala. In the center of the system was – and still is – the Onpo Lhakhang of Sumur.

The Triloknath temple of Tunde in the Chandrabhaga valley of Lahul holds a special position among the religious monuments of the western Himalayan region. It is a place of Buddhist and Hindu worship. This unusual co-existence of the two religious belief systems results from a two-fold identification of the main cult image as Avalokiteśvara or Śiva. The article will address this situation from an architectural perspective.