The Ruins of Guge Kingdom

The Ruins of Guge Kingdom is a wonder of Nagri, considered as the old Summer Palace of Tibet. Present-now remaining buildings are five superior temples and palaces: White Temple, Red Temple, Samsara Temple, Imperial Palace and Assembly Palace, which have many inscriptions, statues and murals displayed inside.

On the 300 - meter - high mountain slope, broken city walls, collapsed roofs, weathering cornerstone and other remains below dust came into view. They record a prosperous kingdom - Guge Kingdom with 700-year history that disappeared in 1635 due to civil strife and foreign attacks. War fire destroyed the castles; earth buried the warriors; the once prosperous state was fragmented. Over 100, 000 people vanished suddenly in this battlefield without nothing to leave, which has become an unfathomable enigma. Only from the historical records and cultural relics can we track the history of Guge Kingdom.

Stone inscription is one of the precious treasure of Guge Kingdom, carved into the walls and oval pebbles. The city wall is a combination of war and art with 4502 figured stones and Tibetan Sanskrit Mantras inscriptions. After centuries, most of them have dropped off and faded away, but have been given more art charms and profound meaning. It is a huge display of stone inscription, while the Shiquanhe nearby shows a river of oval pebbles with precious cultural achievements.

Mural is another masterpiece of Guge Art, though it had kept silent for hundreds of years, depicting Buddhist stories, myths and legends, as well as many-sided life scenes of Guge people. Various cultures and customs of Guge Kingdom are shown on these spectacular murals, from which you can find out the growth and decline of Guge Kingdom.