There is a mysterious and unique land surrounded by mountains in Zanda County, Tibet, and on this land stand the famous Ruins of the Guge Kingdom, an ancient kingdom in Tibet. It is not far from Mount Kailash and is about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) westwards from Lhasa.
The land where the Ruins stand belongs to Yardang Landform. Legend has it that this land was a vast ocean in ancient times. The ruins cover an area of about 180,000 square meters and possess over 300 houses and caves. There are about 28 different kinds of stupas in the ruins, and 3 of them are have a height of over 10 meters. The most famous buildings in the Ruins should be the 5 well-preserved temples and palaces, namely the White Temple, Red Temple, Samsara Temple, Imperial Palace, and Assembly Palace. The Ruins of the Guge Kingdom are of great value in studying the painting, clay sculpture and sculpture art of ancient Tibet. They are the complete works left by the Guge Kingdom as well as the representatives of the architecture and art of Guge Kingdom.
The Ruins of the Guge Kingdom stand on a yellow earth hill on the banks of the Xiangquang River in Tuolin Town in Zaborang District, Zada County, not far away from Zanda Earth Forest National Geo-park.
The altitude of Tuolin Town is 3,890 meters. Just like what is mentioned above, the Ruins are situated on a earth hill, so the altitude will increase as you climb up the hill.
However, compared with the altitudes of other attractions in Ngari, the altitude of the Ruins is relatively low. If you come here via overland, you don’t need to worry about the altitude sickness at all, as you would have already adapted to the altitude in Tibet before reaching here.
The Ruins are a group of architectural remains. The buildings are dilapidated, but establishing a kingdom at an area which is over 4,000 meters above sea level is itself a miracle. Until today, the grandeur of the Ruins still strikes awe in the beholder’s heart. Guge Kingdom was founded in around the 10th century but disappeared mysteriously during the 17th century, which adds a great deal of mysterious hue to the kingdom. Highlights of the Ruins include the murals in the five temples and palaces, the Charnel Cave, and the sunrise at the Ruins.
Contents of the murals in the temples and palaces are mainly patterns of Buddha and his father, patterns of a Guge king and his son, and patterns of the kings of Guge and officials.
Charnel cave is the last relic of Guge Kingdom and is located in the valley in the north of Guge old city. The cave was excavated on a cliff which is 3 meters high from the earth’s surface and 600 meters from the north of the Ruins. The cave mouth is only 0.8 meters wide and 1.2 meters high, and the cave consists of 3 rooms.
Inside the cave is very wide and broad, stacked with corpses of ancient people without skulls, which makes the Ruins more mysterious. There are many legends to explain the origin of the cave. And the most convincing one should be the follow: There was a war between Guge and another kingdom, and the result of the war was that Guge was defeated by the enemy. Then the enemy chop off the heads of the Guge people who would rather die than surrender, and they cast the corpses in the cave. Due to the dry weather, the corpses are not completely rotten and they exude a strange smell.
The sunrise at the Guge Ruins and the sunset at Zanda Earth Forest are the views that won’t be missed by photographers. When the rising sun gradually shines on the hill, the golden castle merges with the earth hill. And you can see the majestic Guge castle standing proudly under the blue sky.
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