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Minyak: An Architectural Treasure Trove
by Pamela Logan November, 2005
Contents:
* Background on the Minyak region of Kham * An influential lama lends his support to architectural preservation * An ancient tower in Minyak * A well-preserved manor house that once belonged to a Minyak lord * A private chapel with wall paintings at least 700 years old * Why these Minyak buildings need conservation
With China in the throes of a national building boom, it's rare to find individuals who appreciate the value of an old house. Even Tibetans who revere their ancient religious traditions are still often dissatisfied with an old, run-down temple and would prefer to have a shiny new place of worship. That makes Minyak Choekyi Gyaltsen a maverick, for he is one of the few voices in the wilderness crying out for preservation. "Every year I go to my home area of Minyak and tell people, please don't tear down your ancient houses," he said not long ago over tea in the sitting room of his Lhasa residence. "Most of the time, they listen." They listen because Minyak Choekyi Gyaltsen has a mantle of religious authority to back him up: he's an incarnate lama, though he neither wears robes nor lives in a monastery. Incarnate lamas are not rare in Tibet, but Minyak Choekyi Gyaltsen is different from others because he is also a trained architect. He is director of the Tibet Ancient Architecture Design and Research Institute. He was the chief technical advisor on projects to restore the Potala Palace, Norbulingka Gardens, and Sakya Monastery. He also teaches architecture at Tibet University. Lhasa's great historic monuments receive government funding for restoration, but the ancient buildings of his home area of Minyak are too remote and obscure, so they get little attention. Over the years, Choekyi Gyaltsen has watched the ancient stone towers, temples, and manor houses of Minyak slowly crumble. Every half-decade or so comes a moderate earthquake that causes a few more to collapse in a heap of stone rubble. Yet most of the time, these losses can be prevented. "A building is like a person," he says. "It can be a little sick, not too serious. But if the stone walls collapse, there's no way to repair it." In Chengdu, Choekyi Gyaltsen's daughter Dechen brings up photographs of some ancient stone structures in Minyak on her computer. She has pictures of old manor homes with amazingly well-preserved tall chapels attached, and incredible towers more than 20 meters high. They were built of random stone with extraordinary skill some seven hundred to a thousand years ago. Very few have been carbon-dated, although explorer-scholar Frederique Darragon took samples from one pair of newer-appearing towers and found them to be 780 years old. The story of their origins has been lost in the dust of centuries, wars, and revolutions. But one thing is clear: they must have been created by a rich civilization. Who were these Minyak people? They are considered Tibetan but, like the Gyarong tribe to the north, they have strong distinguishing characteristics. Minyak was a powerful kingdom; it reached its height about one thousand years ago. They ruled a broad area: from Garthar(Bamei) to Gyezil (Juilong), from Nyachuka(Yajiang) to the Gongga Shan range. They had their own speech which is considered by some experts to be a dialect of Tibetan and by others to be a different language. Vague but persistent legends link the Minyak to the Xixia (Western Xia, or Tangut) tribe in northern China; but their true origin is unknown. Also unknown - to most of the world, anyway - is the Minyak kingdom's incredible architectural legacy. Most of the oldest structures are found in Sha-de township, just west of mighty Gongga Mountain, about four hours' drive from Kangding.
Bowa Tower is one such stone-built wonder. Roughly 20 meters high, 6.4 meters square at the base, the tower stands high above surrounding houses. Unlike most towers in the region, Bowa Tower's footprint is square, so experts believe it is among the oldest still surviving. What protected it? Mainly, excellent construction: the stones were laid with consummate skill. There is only a little clay mortar holding them together, but the clay is high in lime that makes it sticky and good for building. The walls are over 1.5 meters thick at the base and taper slightly as they rise, which has probably helped prevent them from falling during earthquakes. Why were Bowa and other towers built in the first place? Some of them are well placed to be watch-towers but then this conclusion is weakened when one observes, for example in Pengbuxi, pairs of towers built side by side. Some speculate the towers were built mainly for prestige, perhaps to honor the birth of a son. Could they have had a religious purpose? No one knows for sure, although many are keen to solve the riddle. Despite the allure of its many mysteries, Bowa Tower does not need to be fenced or locked. No one can disturb it because it has no doors at ground level. Instead, ingress is via a small entrance five meters above the ground. Yet despite its fortifications, Bowa Tower is in trouble. Inside, the timber supporting structure is badly decayed. The roof is long gone, which means rain gets inside the tower. The summit is damaged, many stones are missing there, and grass is slowly taking over. Four years ago, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck less than 50km kilometers away. It is only a matter of time before a trembler arrives that is either closer or bigger. The local village headman, Gongga, is keen to attract support for protection of Bowa Tower. "Minyak Choekyi Gyaltsen" - he's the Tibetan architect in Lhasa - "told us not to knock down the tower. In the past there was another tower, eight stories high. It fell down because the community didn't know how to maintain it. Now, we see the importance of preservation."
In Wayu Village, at the end of a 3 km dirt road from Sha-de town, there is another, entirely different, sort of ancient structure - an old manor house. It is grandiose, sprawling, impressive, and ancient, with a large walled yard surrounding. The house is owned by two brothers, Pema Tsecheng and Pema Penlo. Some years ago they split the original house and built walls to separate the two sides. Most Tibetan homes are not big enough to make comfortable duplexes, but dividing this house was no problem whatsoever. It's plenty big enough, even for two extended families. When you enter the house through either of the two main entrances, the first thing you see is a barn where the animals bed down at night. That's normal in a Tibetan house, but what's unusual here is that Pema and Pema's house has two barns, one on top of the other, the second floor being for fodder. It's only when you ascend above the second barn that you finally find the family's living quarters - two more stories' worth. The floors are connected by ladders, each made of a single log with notches cut into it for steps. These days most Tibetans install modern plank staircases in their homes, but Pema and Pema were enjoined by Minyak Choekyi Gyaltsen to keep their house in original condition. That means, keeping the ladders, the paneling, the beams, floors, and ceilings. It's all there, and it all looks - if not original, then at least very old. Most probably, this house belonged to a feudal lord who owned much land and kept serfs who paid rent in butter and grain. When the Communist Party came to power in 1949, they ousted the landlords and liberated the serfs. During the Cultural Revolution most such manor houses were either destroyed or turned into government property. Pema and Pema's ho
use became a storehouse for Wayu village. In the late 1970s, after the Cultural Revolution was over, the house was returned to the family. What protected Pema and Pema's house was the fantastic quality of the construction. The beams are laid in triplicate across wide, boat-shaped capitals. The clay on the roof is over two feet thick. The plinths have "keys" protruding from them that fit into the columns. This kept the house resistant to weather and earthquakes even during a decade of neglect. Even more unusual, Pema and Pema have not made any major changes to the house. The ceilings are still black with soot. The doors still have slots over them that were used in ancient times to hurl rocks and drive spears at marauders. The huge old timbers with their tight grain are still in evidence, and what you see on their surface is the marks of an adze, not a saw. Yet the house has problems, too, dry-rot in the timbers being its chief ailment. Pema and Pema's families don't want to live in a museum; they want a new house with all the latest features. Already, another ancient house in Wayu has been abandoned by its owners because the repairs it needs are simply too extensive. Outside help will be needed if this old mansion is to endure.
One frustrating thing about investigating these ancient buildings is that the current inhabitants and neighbors have no idea who built them or why. But there is one type of Minyak structure that is more generous with its secrets. That is the "tall chapel" - a tall stone tower-like house built onto the sides of a handful of surviving Sha-de homes. These tall chapels look a bit like Bowa Tower but are only half the height. They are far easier to access than the towers since they have doors connecting them with the houses they're attached to. And they are more informative because of the murals that are housed inside. Pema Tenzin, 68, is the owner of one such ancient chapel, located in a little place called Kawu at the end of a 13 km dirt road, far from highway traffic and encroaching modernity. The chapel is reached by climbing notched-log ladders up Pema Tenzin's double-story balcony, then walking through the interior of his house, passing through a low opening into the old part, then climbing more stairs up and through a trap door to the highest floor.
The room is about eight meters square with a 4-meter high ceiling. One small window admits daylight but only after Pema Tenzin pulls open the creaking wooden shutters. The room is dark, cold, high, and removed from the bustle of daily life: a perfect environment for preservation. Pema Tenzin's family keeps many old things here: furniture, butter boxes with hand-carved sliding lids, thanka paintings, and a few books wrapped in cloth. In this cold, silent room time seems to have stood still. The murals on the walls of the chapel are its most precious part, but they are covered with dirt and soot. Even with a flashlight it's difficult to see the contents. Though obscured, the images still reveal much. A picture of the Karmapa, incarnate leader of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, dates the paintings at 12th or 13th century. If the murals could be cleaned properly by conservators they might have much more to tell. Unfortunately, the sanctity of this time-capsule may soon be shattered, for the chapel building is in deep trouble. The walls are cracked and buckling, the foundation is giving way, beams are pulling out of their slots, and the roof is twisting. In a place where time is measured in centuries, this chapel may have only a few years left.
Minyak has a trove of Tibetan architectural treasure unlike anywhere else. The buildings there deserve detailed study by experts, including archeologists, historians, art historians, and anthropologists. But first the buildings urgently need intervention by architectural conservators to prevent them from decaying any further. Otherwise all the knowledge that is hidden within them may soon become irretrievably lost.
Postscript: Kham Aid and other organizations are now implementing architectural conservation programs to rescue rare Minyak monuments like these. Kham Aid's work is described here. For information on the effort to rescue Pema Tenzin's ancient chapel, contact the Plateau Heritage Rescue & Consultation Association at hellominyak@yahoo.com.
The survey described in this report was made possible by USAID funding provided to Kham Aid Foundation through the Sustainable Tibetan Communities program led by Winrock International. Special thanks are due to Lama Tri Tashi Donden of the Minyak Environment and Culture Service Group for guiding the field team, Kelsang Norbu of Winrock for translating interviews, Pema Tseren of Winrock for assisting with measurements, and Craig Hunter of Kham Aid Foundation for technical support in engineering, photography, and mapping.
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