Tuk Mor, what's left?

In the east on the same side of the valley about 3 kilometers away there lie the ruins of Tuk Mor Monastery. What is left now are plenty of shards of glazed green ceramic and non glazed roofing tile along with about 60% of the exterior earthen walls. The remaining walls run north and south up the hill. There are 4 heavily eroded sites for Stupas and prayer flag monuments just to the north of the outer walls. There are indications of interior walls and foundation pads for various buildings. One does not have to dig much to find lots of tile and glazed pottery covered  by dirt. In the 13th century Tuk Mor monastery was destroyed, the monks and the assets were transferred to the Lower Sange Monastery; a group of the monks from Tuk Mor decided to start their own Monastery about .7 kilometer south of the lower monastery at Sange. This then became the upper Sange Monastery. The Tuk Mor site is now terraced with small shrubs growing there that are used for gastrointestinal medicines and there exists two in ground ovens for baking bread that field workers use during the harvest time. There are two sites just outside of the old earthen walls that have mani stones and other offerings; one is a large pile of black slate that is vertically stacked with many mani stones and images of Buddha carved into the stones. The other stacking has one mani stone and one weathered stone with an image of Avalokiteshvara, green ceramic shards and other stones of notable visual acumen.

The Demise of Tuk Mor

The demise of Tuk Mor has three different theories. The first is that the main Stupa was built in a "dirty" design; as it was explained to me the structure should reflect the upper body of Buddha, but instead it reflected the lower groin and crotch. The second theory is that an earthquake destroyed it. The third theory is that it was destroyed much like the original temple at Lower Sange, by a mudslide that was the result of a heavy rain and deforested hills acting against the banks of a lake above the monastery. When one looks at the photo taken from Ghomar Monastery about 3.5km away one can see the the uphill and down hill walls are completely gone. This, coupled with the mud-slide evidence at Lower Sange, would lend support to the mudslide theory. The buried ceramics at the site evident every where, one does not have to dig but with the toe of a shoe to uncover plenty of broken clay and ceramic pieces. I would think that if it was the "dirty" Stupa that caused them to tear it down then there would be much less broken tile. The "dirty" stupa may have taken the blame for the devastating mudslide and is the reason that the story persists. The terracing that is seen in the photographs are current cultivation of medicinal shrubs. There is also a field workers oven below the monastery that the workers use when they are tending or harvesting the shrubs, which are used for gastrointestinal problems.