Temple Art

The main Assembly or Prayer Hall and the Bodhisatava Avalokiteshvara Temple at the Lower Sange Monastery were partially destroyed during the attack on the monastery during the Cultural Revolution by the Red Guard in 1972 and also previously in March of 1958. The monks and Lamas that survived these attacks went into hiding until 1988. They took with them as much of the art work and relics that they had time to save. Some hid in the village and others went to caves in the region. In 1988 Gedun Chok Drub under the guidance of the Geshe of Lower Sange demolished the two structures and started a rebuilding project that continues today. They decided to replace all of the interior wall hangings as the art work that they had salvaged would not fit in to the new design and they also wanted fresh designs and colors. A friend of the monastery, a Muslim named Yan Fe Gu purchased all of the wall hangings to give the monastery seed money for their reconstruction. Baronet has been working with Yan and the monastery since 2003 collecting and preserving the art from the Sange Monasteries. We do not know which art came from the Assembly hall and which came from the Temple, what we do know is that this art all came from the Lower Sange Monastery from one of those two buildings. New paintings were created to replace these as the centuries had left them rather soiled. Some have the kyungbur incorporated into the painting. These were painted at different times, the youngest is the LW014 with the mantra on the back side, dating to the late 19th or very early 20th century; while the LW001, LW002, LW003, LW005, LW012 and LW13 are the oldest and date to the beginning of the 15th century. The original temple built in the 11th century was destroyed by a mudslide when the banks of a small lake in the mountains directly above the temple gave way during a severe rain storm. The mountain side soil stability had been compromised by the deforestation that had been going on for centuries. There existed stories handed down about the storm and the mudslide and these were confirmed in 1988 when the monks were digging a new foundation for the temple on the original site; they uncovered many buried metal statures and other artifacts suggesting a catastrophic mudslide supporting the oral histories.

click on image to view details (some items the pages are still under construction)

LW001 ID= Unknown Age: circa 1400 OAH=59.5" x W=40.5 Price $4800 SOLD	LW002 Amitayus Age: circa 1400 OAH=58" x W=42" PH=46.5" x W=30" SOLD
LW003 Ratnasambhava Age: circa 1390   Material: cloth canvas coated with kaolin and painted Dimensions: OAH=56" x OAW=40" Picture~H=44.5" x W=28' painting is rectangular, camera angle was off center Price: $4850 SOLD SHIPPED TO SINGAPORE	LW005 Amoghasiddhi Price $4900 Age: Circa 1400 OAH=56.5" x W=42 PH=45.25" x W=30" SOLD
LW010 Caturbhuja Manjushri Manjushri Age: circa 1700 OAH=55' x W=46" Painting~H=45.5" x W=36" painting is rectangular, camera angle was off center Price $3850 Sold Portland OR	LW007 Palden Lhamo Palden Lhamo (The Goddess Who Rides on a Sea of Blood) Age: circa 1600 OAH=55" x W=42" PH=45" x 33" Price $4750.00 SOLD~~Portland, OR
LW009 Four-Armed Shadakshari Lokeshvara Four-Armed Shadakshari Lokeshvara (Avalokiteshvara) Age: circa 1800 OAH=54" x W=41" PH=48" x W=34" painting is rectangular, camera angle was off center price $3250	LW013 Guhyasamaja~Akshobhyavajra Guhyasamaja Age: circa 1400 OAH=60.5" x W=42 PH=48.5" x W=31.5" Price $5300 Sold Portland OR
LW014 Vajrakumara and prajnya consort Vajrakumara and prajnya consort Age: circa 1900 OAH=55' x W=46" Painting~H=45.5" x W=36" (measurements approximate + or - 2 inches) painting is rectangular, camera angle was off center Price $2950	LW006 Mahakala Six-Armed Mahakala SOLD OAH=53" x W=42.5" PH=42.5" x W=32'