page_title: Chhairo gompa
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Chhairo gompa / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: photo -chhairo gompa, Chakra painting new gyalpo
context_page_description: Chhairo Monastery was the first monastery of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism founded in Upper Mustang. It was established in the 16th century and is part of present-day Mustang District, Nepal.
  The village and the gompa are located on the historic salt trade route and the population of both Chhairo Monastery and Chhairo village fell into decline when China closed its border with Nepal in the 1960s to restrict movement by pro-Tibetan activists and again recently due to security concerns during the 2008 Summer Olympics.
  The last remaining monks left the monastery in the 1970s and by 1981 only four nuns were taking care of the monastery. At some time between 1981 and the 1990s the management of Chhairo Gompa was left wholly to Chhairo village.
  Since the mid 2000s efforts to reconstruct the main gompa complex have been made. This work is restricted to the monastery, shrine room to Padmasambhava and the main rooms that form a quad around these. The larger monastery complex of rooms for monks, visitors, pilgrims and their horses remain in ruins to the east.
context_section_description: The Chhairo Gompa complex follows the traditional flat roof structures of the Mustang region with stone walls and consists of a temple courtyard, head lama quarters, kitchen and the monks’ quarters and stables.
  The main gompa courtyard
  The temple compound has two religious rooms; the main shrine room and the smaller adjacent Padmasambhava chapel; that face inward onto a slate paved courtyard that was bounded on the other three sides by two-story galleries where visiting guests could view ritual Cham dance. Only the northern verandas are still standing.
  The main shrine room rises above the remaining structures and is capped with a small central lantern providing the only natural source of light. 
  The Padmasambhava chapel (Sanga Choling) is immediately adjacent to the north east and is also capped by a small lantern. It is believed to have been constructed in the 18th century by Lama Sangye. This shrine room currently also serves as the gyalpo since the original gyalpo collapsed. Two statues of the guardian deities are currently housed here. They will be relocated to the new gyalpo when it is completed © 2013.
  The dry stone masonry walls are approximately a metre thick with a timber ring beam about one
  metre beneath the roof acts as a tie. The walls of the Lhakhang and the Shrine room facing the courtyard are mud plastered, reddish clay for the Lhakhang and white clay for the Chapel.
  The windows and doors are in a Newari style influenced by the craftspeople of the Thak area. They are modestly carved but have been heavily over painted. The three upper windows to the Lhakhang incorporate standard Tibetan details creating the lintels to the openings and painted black. The Lhakhang doors have embossed knobs and are decorated with Tibetan inscriptions. A pair of carved images fixed to the Lhakhang's inner doorjambs are said to be Dvarapala or guardians to the temple.
  The Head Lama's Quarters and Kitchen
  Structures housing the Head Lama's quarters and the gompa's original kitchen enclose the courtyard. The kitchen area, in the northeast corner of the courtyard was composed of three rooms: a cooking/eating area, a storeroom and a room for washing. The adjacent Head Lama quarters were on the same level but took advantage of a sloping site and were built as an upper floor above ground level stables.
  The outer walls remain generally sound, but the Lama's quarters had completely collapsed. Restoration work was completed in 2012 providing living, bathroom, kitchen quarters for the Lama, a sleeping area for the young monks as well as additional rooms for visitors. The new Gyalpo is located at the top of this structure, and is currently being decorated © 2013.
  Since 2005 the kitchen has been located in a single storey room to the west of the courtyard.
  The Monks’ Quarters and Stables
  The monks’ quarters and stables are to the east of the lama's quarters and, for the most part have collapsed, although the foundation walls are largely intact. This part of the complex originally consisted of two open courtyards divided by a central spine wall running east-west. The wall divided the space into two separate, approximately square courtyards measuring 20 by 20 metres.
  The northern section is a single-story structure built on higher ground. An internal stone and earth walkway within the northern courtyard provided space for the occupants to sit outside their quarters. The southern courtyard complex is built on lower ground and is generally two stories, allowing space for livestock to be housed in the lower floor and space for living quarters on the upper level. The floors were rammed earth with timber joists and planking laid over.
  Although this section of the complex is the most dilapidated, it is the section that is most suitable for development and possible expansion.
caption: Chhairo Gompa, Chakra Tulachan painting in the new gyalpo
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 20D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2013:05:04 09:53:10", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "178", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9388", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4918", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:05:04 09:53:10", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:05:04 09:53:10", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "92469/16384", "EXIF ApertureValue": "76085/16384", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-5/3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Average", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "17", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2544", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1696", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9244", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "31750/11", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2704000/937", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "-6"}