archaeological articles

Riding from Lumla to Zimithang in the Tawang district in the north -western corner of Arunachal Pradesh, chances are you will not meet another vehicle the whole stretch. The local bus travels only twice a day and army convoys are not as numerous as they were a few years back. At best there might be a sporadic Gypsy on the road, ferrying a government official or a Gaon Bura (village headman), maybe a lumbering navy blue truck of the Border Road Organisation.

Flanked by Bhutan in the west and China (Tibet) in the north, the area is virtually unknown in the country and even in its own state, in spite of the fact that it featured in two major international incidents. It was here in 1959, when Gurkha soldiers of the Assam Rifles escorted the entourage of H.H. the Dalai Lama when they crossed over into India. Subsequently, during the Indo-Chinese war in 1962, Zimithang became a major battleground and temporarily falling into Chinese hands.

A hundred odd kilometres from Tawang, the highway to Zimithang first runs west cutting through the towering himalayan landscape pursuing the course of the Tawanchu river till Lumla, before turning north and entering the valley of the Nyamjangchu. A trickling stream in winter, a torrential river rest of the year flowing down from the Tibetan plateau.
The road snakes alongside the Nyamjangchu passing through occasional hamlets, each lined with mini chortens, mani stones and fluttering prayer flags, inhabited by Buddhist Monpa tribals. The valley meanwhile alternates between little meadows bound by steep forest covered mountains and narrow twisting gorges enclosed by precipitous grey-brown walls of rock, specked with clumps of verdant vegetation.

A few kilometres before reaching Zimithang, at the tail end of one such gorge is the most prominent landmark and the most sacred site of the area. Seated on a slight mound at the foot of a vertical rock face is the prodigious dome of the Gorsam Chorten. A 300 year old edifice of Himalayan Buddhism and the largest Stupa in north-east India, 93 feet tall and covering a base area of over 34,000 feet .
Modelled after the great Boudhnath Stupa of Nepal, its mammoth hemispherical dome projects up from a three terraced plinth with four miniature Stupas set on the four corners. Enormous painted eyes of the "all seeing Buddha" keep a vigil on all four direction from the pyramid crowned, square capital on the top.
Located at a slight distance behind, is a small shrine which the villagers never fail to point out as the place where the 14th Dalai Lama had rested during his escape from Tibet. Though the claim is not endorsed by any Tibetan source, the Dalai Lama's first autobiography "My Land and My People" features a photograph of the stupa, calling it Gonsum Chotëm.

Once near the stupa, another element stupifies the visitor. That the village around the Gorsam Stupa lies deserted ! Some of the houses are lying in a state of disrepair, other in perfect trim, appear to have been suddenly abandoned.
A desolation caused by the entire village shifting almost overnight to a new location downstream. And the factors responsible for the move were neither the flash floods of the proximate Nyamjagchu or the infrequent rocky avalanches, which their people have endured for ages. But, because of the request of one person; the 13th Tsona Gontse Rinpoche the abbot of the Gontse Gaden Rabgyel-ling Monastery of Bomdila.
Aiding the process by purchasing their lands with monastery funds, the tedious task of relocating the people was a part of his ambitious effort of renovating the shrine, which due to years of neglect was on the verge of absolute ruin.
The restoration work was completed in 1998 and surprisingly was carried out without any assistance or participation of any Archaeological bodies. In fact the officer in-charge of the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) in the region were even unaware of the objects existence. Moreover, as extensive use of traditional methods and raw materials was made, the structure looks exactly like before, but with a little more modern reinforcement inside.
The only disappointing aspect about the entire effort was that it has hardly yielded any new data about the structures historical background.
As with most ancient vestiges of the region, the chronicles pertaining to the Gorsam Stupa are missing. Of the three known sets of records, the one kept at the neighbouring Tawang monastery was lost in a fire, the other kept in the Tsona monastery in Tibet became unaccounted for after the Chinese occupation and the third set, vanished among the descendants of the family of its legendary builder, Lama Pradar.

Thus, even the name "Gorsam" is not properly explained. Meaning "Stone Bridge", a popular theory asserts that, it is called so because it is covered with flat stone slabs like those used in indigenous Tibetan design suspension bridges. However, the possibility of the existence of such a stone bridge nearby sometime in the past , thus lending it its name, also cannot be ruled out.

According to the local lore, it was Lama Pradar, a Monpa monk from the nearby village of Kharim who embarked upon the task of building the Chorten after securing the support of the local people and the blessings and a few scared items from the Dalai Lama. The construction apparently took twelve years to complete and was built with stone slabs brought south from Tsona in Tibet.

The story probably has elements of truth, as once in every three years an opening is made in the walls of the Stupa, whereby pilgrims can go in and see the scores of small idols and miniature chortens along with the other religious paraphernalia kept in a chamber inside. However, as both the year of construction and the name of the Dalai Lama whom Lama Pradar approached is unknown, only the local belief that it dates later than the Tawang Monastery ( built in between 1643 and 1647), gives some approximation of its age.

The bold initiative taken by the monks in restoring the ancient site and the co-operation afforded to him by the villagers of Zimithang is a rare example of how people themselves can help preserve their ancient heritage, an attitude completely missing in most other parts of the country. Moreover, the extensive usage of traditional skills, architecture and raw materials instead of erecting a concrete monstrosity as is in vogue in the rest of the country, should serve as another illustrative hallmark in the field of conservation of ancient religious sites.

Back to Ravi J. Deka's Home page

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws