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Manichaean-like Tibetan Temple

"Manichaeans lived as far east as Ladakh, as evidenced by their depiction in some of the late tenth-century frescoes at Alchi Monastery."  - Alexander Berzin

Alchi is a group of 5 small temples in the Indus Valley in Ladakh, India’s northernmost province about half-way between Leh (64 km) and Khalatse (55 km). Formerly within western Tibetan, Alchi now is within the political borders of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Criss-crossed by the river Indus, Ladakh comprises of a number of valleys separated by tall mountain ranges.  It appears that Alchi was once a Manichaean like Manistan (Monastery) about a thousand years ago, but has since served as a Vajrayana monastic center of the Kadampa sect, then one of the Drigung-Kargyüpa order. After the initial building (or rebuilding) and artistic phase in the 11th century or so, additional artwork occured prior to 1437, followed by repairs in the 16th century. It is now empty and is being administered as a tourist site by the monks from nearby Likir. Alchi is in a fertile valley where barley can be harvested twice a year and even wheat can be grown. Gardens are lush and green at 3'500 m elevation. The specialties of Ladakh are Momos (steamed dumplings) & Chhang the local barley brew.  Salt, garlic and onion are the only seasonings in use. Ancient Mani followers, if they lived here, would have grown alms here of barley, wheat, vegetables, onions, garlic, apples, peas, mustard and ten kinds of apricots for the Electi to "collect". An ancient traveler noted:

"It is mountains, sterile and altogether horrible. Barley is the chief product; a little wheat is grown and in some places apricots . . .  and drink Chang, a sort of beer made from barley." - Italian Jesuit, Ippolito Desideri

• Dukhang (Assembly Hall),  -  the earliest and central temple. Entrance to the temple is through a courtyard and elaborately carved doorway with panels of tiny Bodhisattvas and guardian figures. With in the temple is a niche housing a plaster image of Vairochana, the Resplendent Buddha who represented the Column of Glory or Perfect Man in Manichaeism, and the fifth Zephyr or void element.
• Sumtsek (triple-storied temple) - This is a triplestoried temple with a carved wooden façade consisting of pillars, carved brackets, and capitals. The three-storeyed temple has an open shaft through the center of each floor to allow light to penetrate from the roof down to each level. Three large statues of clay are here: Avalokitéshvara, Maitreya, and Manjúshri. The murals of the inaccessible Second Floor can only be glimpsed at from below. Its walls are filled with large mandalas and, on the far, Western wall, with panels showing the paradises of the five sons of the Primal man - the Djanibuddhas.  On the north wall are two mandalas of these five buddhas - the left one has their female aspects with Vajrayogini, the female aspect of Vairocana, at the center. (1060 AD)
• Soma Lakhang (New Temple)  - This structure is thought by some to be of a later date than the other shrines at Alchi. Within the small square room is a chorten or votive stupa. It is slightly set back, next to and south of the Sumtsek.
• Lotsawa Lha-khang (Hall of the Translator)  - The Lotsawa Lha-khang is now dedicated to Rinchen Zang-po, the venerated teacher and renowned translator of Buddhist lore said to have been born near Alchi. It has a gilded Bodhisattva Shakyamuni, with two small  sculptures on either side - Rinchen Sangpo and Lokeshvara, a tantric, four-armed Jidam-version of Shakyamuni.
• Manjushri Lha-khang  - The square shrine has four central columns that hold up the raised roof. Within the shrine of Manjushri are four large plaster images of the Bodhisattva, of no great antiquity. Manjushri is the Bodhisattva of wisdom and literature, a version of Mani and Maitrya. The sculptures are contemporary with the murals in the Sumtsek, but have been painted over.

• Hall of the Sacred Scrolls & Tablets
• Hall of Fasting & Teaching
• Hall for Cult & Confession
• Hall of Teaching the Dharma
• Hall for Ill Monks

"It can hardly  be denied that this doctrine has strange analogies with the Manichaean  system  in which  the five luminous elements play a prominent part in cosmology as well as in soteriology....The question of Manichaean influences upon Mahaayaana and Lamaism has, no doubt, already been dealt with in some quarters..." Some glosses upon the Guhyasamaja by Tucci,Giuseppe

"The great Persian heretic liar Mani of insatiable heresy has borrowed something from all systems in order to fabricate a system deviating from all others, and while he, in accordance to what he did, arranged quite deviating meaning, the views held by other systems are present changed, therefore non authentic, etc." - Santaraksita

Alchi Manichaean Monastery

Alchi Manichaean Monastery Plan

Traditionally the foundation of Alchi Monastery, and other nearby sites, is attributed to the translator Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055), but it is unlikely that he personally built all of them.  The murals of the temple dedicated to him (Lotsawa Lakhang) appear to be later copies of those in the Sumtsek and Soma Lakhang, suggesting that later upholders of Rinchen Zangpo's reforms wished to associate the site more fully with him.

In Rinchen's biography he writes that he visited Kashmir three times from Guge to obtain the services of at least 32 skilled Kashmiri craftsmen and painters. Rinchen Zangpo's is credited with the building of 108 monasteries and the so-called Second propagation of Indian Buddhism in Tibet, after it was repressed for nearly two centuries. He was patronized by the Western Tibetan monk-king Yeshe O and translating 158 religious texts, which helped convert Tibet ( at least outwardly) to his form of Vajrayana Buddhism. Yeshi-O was a devout Buddhist King who sent 21 youths to learn Tantric Buddhism in Kashmir, India. Only Rinchen Zangpo and another made it back alive. Rinchen Zangpo was instrumental in having Atisha come to Tibet to teach. Atisha simplified the whole system and helped create modern Indian and celibate infused Vajrayana Buddhism. Manichaean and Bon continued to be a major influence despite their efforts, and traces of both are evident in existing Varayana art, texts and teachings.

"Because the second propagation was based almost exclusively on importation from India, During this time the earlier translations were re-evaluated and checked for signs of Tibetan innovation. The older texts were checked to see if a Sanskrit original could be found and if not and the text was found to be in any way unorthodox, it was excluded from the canonical collection of Buddhist texts that began to be formed. This served to cause a rift between those practitioners of the kind of Buddhism that carried over from the earlier propagation and the new wave of Buddhism. This tension has endured to varying degrees down to the present."- Paul Donnelly's Lecture Notes

Some scholars claim that Lamayuru has a pre-Buddhist, Bon Po history, and is one of the oldest religious sites in Ladakh, but other data seems to not support this assertion. Its real name is said by some to be Yungdrung, signifying swastika (Bonpo name). Once the home of more than 400 monks, today the monastery barely supports 20 to 30 monks of the Gelugpa sect.

Tabo Chokhor monastic complex has very definite affinities with Manichaean influenced mandala meditations, such as the Guhyasamaja tantra. This of course does not prove it was Manichaean, but again may show Manichaean influence on the developing Vajrayana tradition of the time. One book tells us:

"When it was founded the Tabo Chokhor monastic complex was built according to the concept of the mandala, in its outer as well as its inner structure, taking into account the Buddhist philosophy of macrocosm equaling microcosm. The main temple, Tsug Lhakang was at the center of the whole complex. The center of this temple was also the center of the compound along the east–west axis, having its major statue, Saravid Vairochana, placed in the central spot not only of its surrounding 32 statues in a perfect three-dimensional mandala around him – and therefore of the temple – but also of the whole complex. The 33 deities of the cycle of Tabo´s Vajradhatu Mandala are nothing other than symbols of special moments in the meditation process. The fivefold mandala expresses a particular system of cosmic evolution. Its background stages to be undertaken are called reabsorption. This reabsorption into the cosmic Buddhahood is reached little by little in five stages through eliminating in a final manner the dimness which is caused by the passions and ignorance. Only by attaining the virtue of the intimate essence symbolized by the deities is regeneration and sublimation possible. It is the pure germinal luminosity symbolized by the silver (white) Vairochana, “the Refulgent” being the fourfold Saravid Vairochana at Tabo, “the Omnipresent One” – the center of the mandala – from which everything stems, detaching itself more and more, materializing itself and finally becoming dim. " - Aglaja Stirn & Peter van Ham