Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/335

 CHAP. II. TIBET. 291 Gandan, and in the Potala palace are special objects of worship. But as no country in the world possesses a larger body of priests in proportion to its population, and as these are vowed to celibacy and live together, their monasteries are more extensive than any we know of elsewhere some containing 2000 or 3000 lamas, and, if we may trust the information supplied to Mr. Rockhill, Debung Lamasery contains 9000, Se-ra 7000, and Gandan 4OOO. 1 The Tibetan monasteries are not built with any regularity, nor grouped into combinations of any architectural pretension, but consist of long streets of cells, mostly surrounding small court- yards, three or four on each side. They are generally placed on sites chosen with taste either on the tops of hills with a wide view round them, or in fertile valleys sheltered from the colder winds. They occupy large areas in order to accommodate the numerous population, and have the appearance of towns, consist- ing, as they do, of a large aggregation of separate dwellings for the monks, and surrounded by a high wall having four gates towards the cardinal points. Outside are the houses and shops of the tradesmen and shopkeepers. The houses are in the usual style of the country the walls often with more or less batter having the kitchen and storerooms on the ground floor and the living rooms on the upper storey, which has a flat roof forming a terrace. In the centre of the monastery is a large square for assemblies, in the middle of which stand the temple, library, meeting-hall of the authorities and mansion of the superior or abbot, distinguished by a painted band or frieze of reddish brown running round it under the eaves. The temples are rectangular stone buildings, commonly constructed on a general model, the walls often rough-cast in white with a broad band of red or yellow colour under the eaves. The roofs are formed of beaten clay or with tiles, on the middle of which is raised a sort of pavilion with a Chinese roof decorated with little gilt pyramids at the angles and apex. These temples have no windows, the only daylight being admitted by the doors. Inside they are divided longitudinally by two ranges of pillars into a nave and side aisles, as in the chaitya caves in India. The pillars and joists are painted yellow or bright red, and painted silks are hung from the roof. At the inner end of the nave is the altar or shrine with its three large images under the chhattra, and lighted by lamps. The aisles are supplied with cushions for the inferior lamas or monks, and their walls are covered either with frescoed pictures or large paintings on silk of Buddhas, Jataka 1 'Journal of the Royal Astatic Society,' 1891, p. 278. Debung and Sera are both in the vicinity of Lhasa, and rfGa^/dan pronounced Gandan is about 35 miles east from Lhasa.