The sculpture of a lion at the Tibetan King tomb
2 min read“The Tang and Tubo Alliance Tablet”in front of the gate of the Jokhang Temple There are large-scale stereoscopic stone Buddha sculptures in the Trandruk Monastery at Shannan Prefecture, with very large figures manifesting superior craftsmanship. Unfortunately, the head was damaged, making it hard to imagine the detailed features of the original.
The stone carvings in the Samye Monastery boast diversity and excellent techniques used in making them. In the Samye Monastery, there is a Sakyamuni Buddha statue, which is said to have been made based on a giant rock from the Habu Mountain, about four meters high. Although it is not in Tubo style, it is one of the treasures of the early stone carving art. Each of the two stone lions at the door sides of the hall is 1.3 meters high and 0.8 meter long. In terms of the artistic style, they enjoy some sort of semblance with the stone lions of the Tibetan King’s tomb, but they have been localized. In front of the hall there are two stone elephant statues-the bigger one is 1.1 meters high and 1.3 meters long, and the baby elephant is 0.5 meter high and 0.5 meter long. White marble was used, rarely seen in Tibetan stone carvings. Along the way from the Samye Monastery to the ferry, there are several peculiar stone pagodas. Giant rocks in suitable terrain and size were selected by the craftsman as raw material to make the sculptures on site, which later became a unique local cultural landscape.
