The Paintings of the Caves of Sa spo la in Ladakh: Proof of the Development of the Religious Order of the dGe-lugs in Indian Tibet During the 15th Century

The name of the caves of Sa spo la comes from their namesake, a village to the south of Leh, along the main road near A lei, which joins Ladakh to Kashmir. The caves were an ancient hermitage, not far from a temple devoted to A valokitesvara located near the ruins of a fort. Only three of the five caves, which overlook the valley from the hill of conglomerate from which they were dug, contain paintings . The decorations on the walls of the cave, conventionally called No. 3, still reflect bright colours. The caves are a part of an iconographical cycle which is complete, whilst the decoration in the remaining caves is rather damaged. Cave Nos. 1, 4 and 5 are more damaged than the others and there are no paintings found in the latter two cases. For this reason, only cave Nos. 2 and 3CD will be examined . The caves of Sa spo la were documented and studied by Snellgrove and Skorupsky in 1974, during their first trip to Ladakh. The result of their research, The Cultural Heritage of Ladakh, is even today used as a reference work for historical-artistic studies about the temples of Ladakh. The paintings in cave No. 2, which Snellgrove and Skorupski had only partly described ( 1980: 80) , will be portrayed and documented in the first part of this article. The second part refers to cave No. 3, and some additional data and considerations about the description of Snellgrove and Skorupski will be provided herein. The style, the choice of the iconographical subjects, and aboveall the presence of the inscriptions make it possible to form an initial historical reconstruction of the pictorial cycles of the Sa spo la caves. Amongst the images painted on the walls of the caves are the portraits of a number of historical figures. Their identities, however, are not always clear, despite the fact that some of their names have been specified with inscriptions. On observing the style of these paintings - comparable with that of the Guru lha khang in Phyi dbang, Lha khang So ma and those of Tsha tsha phu ri in A lciCD - but above all, on reading the inscriptions, it is possible to say that the caves could not have been decorated before the beginning of the 15•h century . The iconographical cycles reflect non-sectarian cultural and religious behaviour that was open not only towards the 'Bri gung pa school, but also to Sa skya pa and above all to dGe lugs pa.