The temple-monastery I myself visited in British Sikkim, near Dārjīling, is similar. The exterior appearance might be compared to that of some small Dissenting chapel in an English village. The thatched roof, which once gave it a picturesque appearance, has recently been removed, and a roof of modern construction substituted. The shrine or temple is on the ground floor, while the upper floor is the abode of the attendant priests, and seems also to serve as a store-room with cupboards for their equipments. The contents of the ground-floor temple, with its altar at the further end and shelves for the sacred books on one side, are very indistinctly seen, being only lighted up by a ‘dim religious light,’ when the door is kept wide open. I noticed three images on the altar.
The case is different when large numbers of monks congregate in particular places. In some districts of Ladāk, Mongolia and Tibet, monasteries (or Lāmaseries as they are sometimes called) have been erected, which for vastness, magnificence, and grandeur of situation amid splendid scenery, are unequalled in any part of the world.
According to strict rule, retired localities should be chosen. Hence large monastic establishments are often found in solitary places[226] and elevated situations; for instance, in Ladāk those at Lāma Yurru and Hemis are more than 11,000 feet above the sea, and that at Hanle is 14,000 feet. They resemble romantic castles towering upwards in the midst of rocks, crags, and snowy mountains.
Another monastery at Kīlang (Kyelang), in the British Tibetan province of Lahūl (contiguous to Ladāk), stands on the spur of a mountain, at an elevation of 12,000 feet, and is approached through grand ravines and glaciers, so that occasionally, after snow-storms, those who pass to and fro are buried in avalanches.
The outer walls of large monasteries of this kind in secluded situations are generally lofty. Often they are made of stone or brick, plastered with mud and surmounted with little pinnacles and poles, on which are prayer-flags. Within the walls are cells for the monks, the abode of the Head or Abbot, a room for holding books, a temple, an assembly-hall, a refectory, store-houses, receptacles for musical instruments, masks, staves, etc.; the buildings being often arranged in rows, and always intermixed with Stūpas (see [p. 504]) and monuments. The walls of the vestibules and of the great hall are usually ornamented with fresco-paintings, representing subjects from the Buddhist Jātakas ([p. 111]). Generally there are corridors or covered cloisters lined with prayer-wheels, or open walks paved with stone, called in Sanskṛit Ćankramaṇa (Pāli, Ćankamana), for the monks to perambulate up and down in meditation. These are supposed to be constructed after the pattern of the stone walking-places used by the Buddha himself (see [p. 400]).
In the monastery at Kīlang the roof of the great hall is supported by massive beams garnished with belts, swords, yaks’ tails, huge and terrible masks, and all sorts of odds and ends. On one side is a huge praying-wheel, on each revolution of which a bell is struck. A dim subdued light pervades the entire hall, exaggerating the ghastly hideousness of the figures[227].
To take as another instance—the monastery or Lāmasery of Kunbum (or Kumbum) north of Tibet, celebrated as the birth-place of Tsong Khapa ([p. 277]), and situated, according to M. Huc, on a mountain intersected by a broad and deep ravine:—
On either side of the ravine, and up the slopes of the mountain, rise, in amphitheatrical curves, the white dwellings of the Lāmas, each with its little terrace and enclosing wall, while here and there above them ‘tower the temples, with their gilt roofs glittering with a thousand colours.’ The houses of the superior monks are distinguished by pennants, floating above small hexagonal turrets, while those of the ordinary monks are simple cells. On all sides mystical sentences, in the Tibetan character, meet the eye (see [p. 381]), some inscribed on doors, some on walls and stones, or on linen flags fixed on poles.
Almost everywhere are conical vessels, in which incense and odoriferous wood are burning; while numbers of Lāmas circulate through the streets of the monastery in their red and yellow dresses—grave in their deportment, and, although under no obligation to silence, speaking little, and that little in a low voice.
This Lāmasery of Kunbum enjoys so great a reputation, that the worshippers of Buddha make pilgrimages to it from all parts of Mongolia, Tartary, and Tibet, and on the occasion of great festivals the confluence of strangers is immense. It is much frequented by Eastern Tibetans.
Near Kunbum is a much smaller monastery, devoted to the study of medicine. It is at the foot of a rocky mountain, on the heights of which dwell certain contemplative monks. M. Huc saw one of these hermits, who never communicated with the outer world except for food, which he drew up to his rocky cell by the help of a bag tied to a long rope (ii. 73).