A Rock Sculpture of Maitreya in the Suru Valley, Ladakh Author(s): Jan Fontein Source: Artibus Asiae, Vol.

41, No. 1 (1979), pp. 5-12 Published by: Artibus Asiae Publishers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3249497 Accessed: 22/10/2010 23:03
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JAN FONTEIN

A ROCK SCULPTURE OF MAITREYA IN THE SURU VALLEY, LADAKH

Near roadto Lehfollowsa winding course thefoot of themountains between anda solitary,
of a four-armed hasbeencarved. fiftyfeettallrock,on thefaceof whichthefigure Maitreya Themorethantwenty-five feettallsculpture, in highrelief carved marks (Fig.i), symbolically
the transition fromIslamic into Buddhist for it is at this pointthatthe chbrten territory, (stfpas)

abouthalf-way between andLeh,thecapital of Ladakh, themain Mulbek, Srinagar

andgompas of the Lamaist church (monasteries) beginto dot the landscape.

Since 1974,when the IndianGovernment lifted the ban on touristtravelto Ladakh, the

of Mulbek a major of visitors hasbecome tourist attraction for the thousands who Maitreya travel eachsummer. in scholarly andguide Thephotographs by bus to Ladakh publications in its entirety,, have Buddhists booksusually showthe sculpture but in recent years pious
in front of it, blockingan unimpeded erecteda smallwooden templeimmediately view of at its feet. The rectangular the sculpture, holes in the face exceptfrom the narrowcourtyard

thatthe statue wasonceprotected madeof of the rockindicate roof,probably by a slanting

when WilliamMoorcroftvisited the site in I8zo20, wood. This roof had alreadydisappeared

almost of it in hisdetailed A.H.Francke visited Mulbek forhe makes no mention description.? ninetyyearslater.Proceeding fromthereto Kargilanddescribing the sitesalongthe road at toldme thattherewasa rockwitha largeBuddhist remarked: Francke sculpture "People a Tibetian I couldnot, andthatit alsocontained in the SuruValley, dKar-rtse inscription. andthe fact thatrelatively This almostcasual remark, however, maps go there".3 modern the in the upperSuru me to leave last Khartse showa villagenamed Valley, year prompted hadnot beenableto visit. in an effort to locatethestatue whichFrancke tourist track beaten on all enclosed thewell-irrigated, greenSuru Valley, through Driving by jeepfromKargil of theNunKun,we reached overwhichtowerthesnowy twinpeaks sidesby baremountains of thearea calldKar-rtse on mostmaps). Theinhabitants thevillageof Sanku (Sanko village
Karchekar, which initiallycauseda certainamountof confusion,but once this toponymic discrepancy had been resolved,my son Arnout,our interpreter Hussanand I set out for our
David L. Snellgrove and Tadeusz Skorupski, The CulturalHeritageof Ladakb,vol. I, Warminster:Aris & Philips, Ltd., &' Essen: Gerda Schettler, 1977, p. I49; Manfred Gerner, 1977, P. 7, fig. 4; Margret & Rolf Schettler, Kaschmir Ladakbh, Himalaya, Goldstadt-Reisefiihrer, Bd. 21o, Pforzheim: Goldstadtverlag, 1976, p. I49. 2 andthePanjab,ed. by H.H. Wilson, London, in theHimalayan Provinces W. Moorcroft and G. Trebeck, Travels of Hindustan 1841, vol. II, p. 173 A.H.Francke, Antiquitiesof Indian Tibet,Calcutta: Superintendent Govt. Printing, India, 1914.part I, p. 1o4.
I

destination. backtowardsBarku we followedthe left bankof the SuruRiver,passing Heading a demolished foot bridgegave us a chanceto bridge.At the next bend a newly constructed cross the swiftly flowing SuruRiver. From there we climbedin approximately two hours hamlets shaded the and willows trees the towards through by ubiquitous poplar village of a clusterof farmhousesencircling Karchekara solitary rock not unlikethe one at Mulbek. The Karchekar statue,however,has not been carvedfrom the largemonolith,but from the faceof a steepmountain slopefacingit (Figs.2, 3, 4). The sculpture standsabouttwenty-five feet tall and coversalmostthe entireheightof the faceof the cliff.The top of its crownextends to the verytop of the cliffwhileits feetand--posare coveredby fallenrocksand otherdebrisat the bottomof the presibly-a lotus pedestal crownedfigureof a bodhisattva the futureBuddhaMaicipice. The two-armed, represents treya.The left handis loweredalongsidethe body, its fingersgraspingthe neck of a vase decorated with floralscrolls.The right handis raisedin front of the chest,its palmturned inwardtowards the body. The samemudra canbe observed in a smaller of Mairepresentation a on stone one of a of four that at stand the near treya statues, pillar, Dras, group way-side aboutfifty kilometers to the east of Mulbek.4 Like the MulbekMaitreya, the statueat Dras is one of thefour-armed butthe two raised outerhandsaretoo damaged us to to enable variety, the attributes with certainty. It doesseemlikely,however,thattheytoo helda stringof identify and beads a like the statueat Mulbek.Apparently in this areaMaitreya flower,just prayer could be represented eitherwith the right handheld low, the palmturnedoutwardin ddnamudra, the gestureof "giving",or with the handraisedfrom that positioninto the gesture madeby the Karchekar and Dras statues.The samegesturehas been noted in at least two bronzesthatarethoughtto havecomefromKashmir.s The most obviousclue to the identificationofa statue as Maitreya, i. e. thesttfa in theheadress, seemsto be lacking in theKarchekar statue. Thestatue canonlybeviewedfromthe pathat thebottomof the cliff,andtheledgeis too to allowus to studyit froma distance. narrow Theangleat whichwe view the uppersectionof the statue,especially the crown,makesit difficultto drawany definiteconclusions, and it is, not altogether certain thatthe stipa in the headress is absent.Moreover, therefore, although most of the detailsof the carvinghavebeenpreserved in all theircrispdetail,the crown,most at the of the has suffered from cliff, exposed top slightly weathering. The Maitreya features of the bronzestatues thatare sculpture displays manyof the stylistic or by Kashmiri generally thoughtto havebeenmadein Kashmir artists,even thougharchaeoevidenceconnecting these statueswith the valleyof Kashmir is not logicaland epigraphical
nearlyas abundantas one would wish it to be. Maitreyais shown wearing an elaboratecrown and profusely decoratedear ornaments.The hair falls down over both shoulders in regularly braided plaits. Around the waist the bodhisattva wears a band consisting of two strands of beads, held together by a button in the shape of a flower. The folds of the dhotiare only summarily indicated. A long scarf sweeps down from both arms to the ankles. All these features are well-known from numerous bronzes. The round face with puffy cheeks and protruding chin and the pronounced abdominal muscles around the navel are equally characteristicof
4 Snellgrove and Skorupski, o.c., p. 7, fig. 3 (left). s Pratapaditya,Pal, Bronzesof Kashmir,New York: Hacker Art Books, 1975, nos. 38 and 39-

kneecaps,however, arenot common in the Theclearly delineated Kashmir bronze statuary. fromthetheChamba is a 9thcentury bronze artof Kashmir. Theclosest parallel valley.6 a hazardous of the bronzes of datable and The paucity dating piecesmakes undertaking, It does to this rock seem that the same,obviously, evident, however, the sculpture. applies
thatarethoughtto datefromthe 9thor Iothcentury is withbronzes A.D. closeststylistic affinity

of Tibetand Ladakh foundtheirwayinto all corners and The easilytransportable bronzes of Mulbek of their ultimate Therockstatuary indication and no reliable there is usually origin.
indicates thatwhatis knownas the Kashmir Karchekar style extended deeplyinto the neigh-

of literary amount evidence of the Thereis a considerable Ladakh. of Western areas boring in Asia and from Kashmir Central ecclesiatics China. of Buddhist activities Ladakh, missionary
is a well-known in the andfollowedthesemissionaries Thatartistsaccompanied phenomenon Ladakh not surprising. of it in Western world.To findevidence Buddhist is, therefore However, in the style generally associated with rock sculpture it is of interestto note that monumental in Kashmir itselfno examples whereas to be foundonlyin Western Kashmir Ladakh, appears

havebeenfound.Kalhana's dimensions of monumental the principal historical Rajatarangini, reached which "aGreat Buddha describes forKashmir, source byKing upto thesky",erected This statue, A. D.) in his newcapital 8thcentury Parihisapura. (early Muktapida Lalitaditya
the reignof KingHarsa however,wascastin bronze,andeventhoughit survived (Io89-I Io1),8

the eclipse thataccompanied destruction in latertimes,a victimof thewidespread it became, in Kashmir. of Buddhism the local thanthe valleyof Kashmir, an areamuchless fertileandaffluent In Ladakh, of to commission bronze communities Buddhist statuary mayneverhavehadthe resources in stone,a less costlyandmore theirmonumental size. By creating monumental sculpture for to be despoiled that a left of Ladakh the Buddhists durable material, legacy wasunlikely fanatics. by religious destroyed monetary gainandtoo largeto be easily of years hundreds to Islam wereconverted of the Suru Theinhabitants ago as the Valley Buddhist into the areafromthe West.The nearest of the Shiitesect infiltrated adherents It abouttwo marching is Ringdom in Zanskar monument village. daysfromSanku Gompa, that in territory wascompletely isolated stands statue thattheMaitreya wouldseem, therefore, of a direct the existence shows at the a to Islam converted map long ago. However, glance a distance the Rasila routeacross passto Mulbekh, of only35 km.as thecrowflies.Thetwo roads. followsthemain
be more closely connectedthan is evidentto the travelerwho large statuesmay, therefore, The above quoted passagefrom Francke's book is followed by the phrase:"Another sculpture from Shinggois found picturedin Drew's book of travel".Havingno immediate accessto Drew'sbook I initiallyassumed that thereexisteda thirdstatueof this type in the Shinggovalley,an areawhichis, at this time, not open to curiousvisitors.However,when I was finallyable to consultFrederic Drew's The andKashmir it turnedout fummo Territories9 that the statuesketchedby this intrepid traveler is none otherthanthe Maitreya of Karchekar.
6 Pal, o.c. no. 84b. 7 M.A. Stein, Kalhana's R jatarangini, Westminster Archibald Constable & Co, 1900, vol. I, p. 142 (Rajatarangini, IV, 203). 8 Jean Nadou, Les Bouddhistes Kalmiriens au Moyen Age, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1968, pp. 51 -52. 9 Frederic Drew, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories, a geographical account, London: Edward Stanford, I875, p. 257.

As Drew correctly identifies the statue as "Chamba"i. e. Maitreya,one may assume that he

was accompanied with Buddhisticonography. Francke by a Ladakhiwho was conversant

obviously mistook Sankhoo for Shinggo. The other information supplied by Francke, i. e.

that the SuruValleystatuecarried a Tibetaninscription, does not seemto be correcteither. A cursory of the face of the rock,too briefbecause of the rapidly hour, inspection advancing no traceof anyinscription. revealed of the Karchekar Above the shoulders two apsaras, theirhandsfoldedin Maitreya appear them two that Beside holes indicate the statue was once protectedby a large square a~-jali. woodenroof, justlike the statueat Mulbek. a morethorough of the area Perhaps investigation will revealthe locationof the monastery that must once have housedthe monkswho paid statueof the Buddha-to-beio. homageto this great,monumental

1o Two of the photographs accompanying this note were taken by Stuart Cary Welch who, following the directions I had given him, was able to reach the site at a time of day when the sun does not cast heavy shadows over the statue.

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Fig. 4. KarchekarMaitreya, detail. Photograph Stuart Cary Welch