We traveled to the little village of Tsaparang in far western Tibet home of the ancient Guge (pronounced Ko-Key) Kingdom. Stayed in this nice little home of a family that Magmar had known for a long time. Comfortable, cozy colorful place.
The hostess of the house who sat patiently for my pencil sketch though she didn't have the slightest idea what I was doing until Magmar explained it to her what I was up to.
Front courtyard of the our little "hotel". That's firewood sticks stacked on the precariously supported roof and the open pit bathroom is up those stairs to the left behind the drying pants on the clothesline.
From the village we hiked up this valley heading for the royal mountain and ruins of the Guge Kingdom. In the upper right there was a cave craved in the cliffs that hid a fairly grizzly history.
Inside this cave George and Jamison are climbing into is the "5,000 Skeleton Cave". Cant swear to the number but when you get in there its a huge low roofed cavern piled with ALOT of headless bodies that were placed by a Indian warrior king after a territorial civil war a 500 years ago. It was strange because even after that long ago the climate is so dry and altitude is so high the corpses are "freeze-dried", crunchy and even the bodies are still in their original clothes.
On the hike up to the base of the Guge Kingdom mountain. The "perfection" temple, with its multicolored bas-relief murals is in the large red building on the right.
Hiking up the steep stairs to the tunnel that reaches to the summit of the plateau.
Jamison and George climbing down the stairs that lead to the summit temples and palaces. This is the only access to the top of the mountain and could be sealed off for defense in case of attack .
Looking down the hand-carved tunnel to George shooting pictures up to the summit light.
Jamison on the summit plateau with the rebuilt main red temple in the middle and royal palaces in the background
Jamison and George standing rather awe struck in the middle of the acres of old ruins suspended in the sky a small wall surrounds the royal city because the cliffs drop off for hundreds of feet on all sides.
One of my favorite pencil sketches of the city and cliffs from the summit platform. I really like how the cliff cascades down from the edge of the buildings stone and mud walls. Frankly I don't know what keeps all of this from tumbling into the valley.
Two views of the old royal palace and temples built on the mountain top. It looks like its all melting back into the landscape.
Another pencil sketch of the precarious nature of these buildings and fortress. Several building were carved down into the mountain with windows and balconies cut out into the cliffs. We visited one where a king, trapped in his castle during a war with his Indian brother (remember the skeleton cave?) had made the choice to hurl himself to the rocks below rather than see his subjects continue to be slaughtered down in the valley.
George reversing his climb down into the "winter palace" hand cut from the rock. The real steep stairs with a wobbly metal handrail leads down to a series of chambers and palace rooms carved from the sandstone.
George standing in one of the "windows" (which at one time had wooden frames and shutters over them) in the winter palace. In the background you can see the ruggedness of the mountainous terrain and guess how hard it would be to siege this mountain top palace.
Two views from the eastern portion of the mountain top showing whats left of the priests and bureaucrats houses down into the stunningly rugged Sutlej Valley and the village we came from that morning.
This is a watercolor of downtown Tholing in the valley below the royal mountain in far western Tibet. There was a little pool table out here in the main village square under one of the few groves of trees we had seen in the last 2 weeks. We discovered that Tibetans loved playing pool.
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