PELKOR CHÖDE MONASTERY

This is one of the main monasteries of the Tibetan plateau, nothing less. And certainly one of the most impressive. Within the walls of the enclosure were 16 colleges belonging to the Gelugpa, Sakyapa and Boutönpa lines. Hard hit by massive destruction during the cultural revolution, it is now largely restored. There is now only one Sakyapa college transformed into a house, a Butterside college on the side of the mountain which is empty and that we do not visit and the monastery of Palkor Chödé. In the Kumbum (Pango Chörten), the great central building, statues were vandalized, but the building itself remained intact. The latter was built in 1140 by Rabten Kunzang. The stûpa to the 100,000 images is a unique and imposing building whose glory clings by far. It contains 112 chapels and its name, the 100,000 images, is symbolic. On its four faces, the eyes of the Buddhas of the four directions testify that it is the work, or was influenced by Newar artists from Nepal. The visit takes place on four floors, in a succession of small chapels that are traversing the roundabout.

Each chapel contains a statue of the divinity to which it is devoted and frescoes, falling within the Buddhist iconography newar, carried out in the fifteenth century. The top floor offers four large chapels dedicated to the four Buddhas and frescoes that illustrate their respective paradise. All chapels are never open and the pinch is forbidden to the public.