Tabo を出発して Spiti valley を下ると、national highway は the border of China まで 5kmくらいに近づいて、いよいよ Kinnaur district へと入る。 かつての中印紛争の余波で、今も Sumdo から Jangi までは通行許可証が必要である。 Kaza の町の役所では一人旅の許可証もたやすく取れるので都合がよいが、その手続きに少々時間をとられるのがもったいない。

"Inner Line Permit" between Sumd and Jangi

こうして入域した Kinnaur district は仏教とヒンドゥ教との混交地域で、建築的にも二つのスタイルが混交している。 時には一つの境内に Hindu temples と Buddhist gompas とが共存していたりもする。多くの寺院や gompas (monasteries) の中で、とりわけ興味深いのは Ribba Gompa であった。 これはまだ政府考古局も調査をしていず、O.C. Handa による詳しい報告もない所だが、一昨年の秋にこの地方を長期間旅してまわった高木辛哉さんが見つけて知らせてくれたのである。

Current exterior of Gompa, Ribba

これは Buddhist gompa ではあるが、前回見たような日乾しレンガによる Tibetan 式の陸屋根の建物ではない。 層塔型の Hindu temple のような円錐形の屋根を、しかも二つ戴いた純木造の建物である。片方の、前面の Dukhan の部分は後の増築であって、奥の正方形の小堂が本来の寺院である。そして意外なことには、the facade of its each face が Kashmir における中世の石造 Hindu temple を髣髴とさせるのである。

Shrinagar 郊外の temple of Pandrethan (10th century) やその他の Hindu temples に見られるような、二段重ねの切妻屋根の facade を各面に作っていて、しかもここではそれが木造であり、その周囲に Alchi Gompa におけるようなギリシア風の溝彫りをほどこした円柱による周廊 （繞道） をまわしているのである。柱頭における 「壷葉飾り」 を初めとして、各部はたんねんに彫刻されていて、Gandhara を源流とする Kashmir architecture と Himachal 土着の民俗彫刻とが融合している姿が見られる。

Stone Hindu Temple, Pandrethan (Kashmir)
(from H.I.S., "Himalayan Architecture" by Ronald M.Bernier, 1997)

この Ribba Gompa もまた Rin-chen-bzang-po の創建と伝えられるが、それが正しければ創建は 11世紀ということになる。 しかしこれは Alchi や Tabo などの Tibet 式とはずいぶんと異なった、Kashmir architecture の影響を色濃く残している。
当時の Kashmir では木造の寺院建築が主流であったが、それらは全く残っていず、その形を受け継いだ石造の Hindu temples のみが少数現存している。 Pandrethan のような形の寺院の木造版や、その周囲に周廊をめぐらした木造寺院は、仏教とヒンドゥ教とを問わず、百を超える数で建てられていたことだろう。

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Present state of Markula Devi Temple and its wood carving, Udaipur

そうした Kashmir architecture の影響は Himachal Pradesh にももたらされたはずで、北部 Lahul region の Udaypur に建っているヒンドゥ教の Markula Devi Temple における木彫と、ここ Buddhist gompa at Ribba が、その片鱗を伝えているのである。
Ribba Gompa の本来の屋根は現在のような円錐形ではなく、Kashmir 式の二段重ねの方形屋根で、周廊に置かれている amalaka 状の頂華がその頂部を飾っていたのであろう。 そしておそらくはウダイプルの寺院もまた、当初は Kashmir 式の方形屋根を木造で作っていたものと思われる。
Ribba Gompa は、考古局によって正確に調査・修復されれば、History of Himachal architecture を解明する上で重要な遺構となることだろう。

Having left Ribba, our jeep went to visit the villages of Kalpa and Kothi around Recongpeo, then it went up the Vaspa valley after turning away from the national highway. As the lodging place was Sangla village, I visited Kamru Fort in the morning for the third time. Then our jeep went deeper into the south, finally we reached the last spot of the Vaspa valley, Chitkul village at an altitude of 3,450m.

Temple tower with wooden roof, Chitkul

This was a very interesting village. Being a Hindu area, there soared symbolically a square type temple tower roofed with wooden boards, surrounded by three temples. It was impressive to see a big cotton tree of more than 10 meters high at Naga temple in the rear, and the ground around it was covered by its white cotton pieces.
What interested me more than the temples however was that wooden cabins were scattered all over the village. While the village houses and the temple tower were constructed in "katth-kuni" putting wood and stone alternately, the cabins which had gabled roofs were constrcted entirely of wood, the use of which is granaries. As this village in near the hight of Mt. Fuji and is cut off by snow throughout winter, they need to store crops for provisions. In order to store crops they have built these granaries separately from the houses.

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Standard granaries and its construction details, Chitkul

That fact does not surprised me particularly, however my eyes were caught by its wooden construction method. Although its gabled garret was open for haystack, the cabin itself was walled by vertical wood plancs without windows. There were middle girders between groundsills and top girders, all of which were crossed at each corner by halving joints, sticking out at each end. It is the very figure of the "house type" cave tomb in Lycia, which I could not help feeling mysterious.

Facade of Lycian house-type tomb, Antiphellus (Turkey)
Represened as if floating in the air.
( from "History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria, and Lycia" by G.Perrot and Ch. Chipiez, 1892 )

I have put forward a theory that the construction method of cave tombs and sarcophagi in the ancient Lycia in Anatolia (now in Turkey) must have affected the Chaitya caves of Buddhist cave temples in ancient India. But I was not sure if the middle girders that were always carved on Lycian caves were definitely reproduction of wooden buildings in those days. Surprisingly however the very exact composition exists actually here in Chitkul.
The reason that the groundsills of Lycian caves are elongated in an ornamental shape is that those caves also show the form of wooden coffins that were carried on people's shoulders like palanquins to cemeteries. Those wooden buildings and coffins are all lost, though a lot of rock caves and sarcophagi carved in imitation of them in the 4th century B.C. are left to the present day.

The granaries at Chitkul have been built just as if reproducing them in wood. Their jointed groundsills are not fixed on foundations, but are simply put on stones at four corners just like on the way of carrying.
If it is certain that the Lycian architecture took part in the formation of the cave temples of India, it is only natural that wooden buildings with strong resemblance to Lycian architecture exist in India. But I have not seen such wooden construction in any other place. Was there actually an influencial relationship between Lycia and Chitkul that were far away each other both historically and geographically ?

Leaving a grand question, our jeep returned to the national highway and continued on the way to Rampur by night.