the Trangmar Gompa of Kagar
Coordinates of the site: 29° 9’0.86” northern latitude and 83°10’16.83” eastern longitude, at an altitude of 4076 meters.
The Kagar hamlet of Tokyu is situated on a terrace overlooking the left bank of the river valley. It consists of several residential houses, two temples and numerous prayer walls and chörten. The Trangmar Gompa is located on the northern side of the settlement, next to a group of large chörten on its western side. It was built at the foot of a rocky crag called buddha-ri. Snellgrove calls it brag-dmar, “the temple of the Red Crag”.
The building is only partially preserved today, but its structure can still be approximately reconstructed based on available documentations. Until 2015, the temple was preserved as a two-storey building. At that time the temple was obviously still in good structural condition. It consisted of an about 2-metre-deep vestibule with its entrance faces to the south, from where one entered an 8.40-metre-wide and 9.90-metre-deep assembly hall, which was supported by six pillars in two rows. Behind the northern wall of the assembly hall, there was a 1.90 metre deep enclosed, sacred chamber that extended across the width of the building and could apparently be entered from above through an opening in the ceiling. Both behind the bookshelf on the rear wall of the assembly hall and in the sacred chamber, wall paintings of high quality were preserved, that indicate a dating of the first half of the 15th century.
Many parts of the painting have already disappeared today, as the structure of the temple has been severely damaged by the 2015 earthquake. The poor state of the construction and the increasing decline led to irreparable damages in the interior of the temple. In order to protect the remaining furnishing and decoration, some exterior walls, as well as the windows and doors and the roof have been renewed.
In some parts of the building traces of the former walls and plaster layers can still be discerned on the otherwise unplastered walls, for example on the east and north side of the unroofed vestibule. Only parts of the wooden structure inside the assembly hall - consisting of four pillars with overlying, carved capitals, as well as the wooden ceiling - are preserved. The room-high painted shelf on the north side of the room, where surviving parts of the sculptures and the books are kept, has been preserved as well. The mural paintings which are located behind the shelf on the north side of the room can only be seen in fragments. Unfortunately, the sacred chamber behind the rear wall of the assembly hall has almost completely disappeared. On the north side of the building, the former plaster of the chamber is preserved in the wall base, the base of the former outside-wall, made of rammed earth, has survived only partially.
