Alchi: Treasure of the Himalayas

Description

The world-famous Buddhist monastery of Alchi lies at 3,500 metres in Ladakh (Northwest India) and is the best-preserved temple complex in the Himalayas. Inside it houses thousands of rare and incomparable paintings and sculptures dating back to 11th century Western Tibet. For the first and only time in their history the Dalai Lama has authorised their comprehensive Alchi was proposed for inclusion in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list in 1996. It provides fascinating insight into the spiritual and secular life of medieval Kashmir and Western Tibet with artworks revealing influences from India and Tibet across Central Asia as well as Iran, even reaching back to Ancient Greece. The photographs were produced in the highest possible digital resolution by Peter van Ham using a special camera; they capture the miniature-like delicacy and broad range of colour of the originals with a unique wealth of detail. In cooperation with the renowned Tibetologist Amy Heller and her pioneering deciphering of the complicated inscriptions of Alchi, van Ham has succeeded in producing a unique and highly fascinating cultural document.

Peter van Ham is a Frankfurt-based author and photographer who has been researching Himalayan culture for nearly thirty years. He is the author of Guge and Tabo, both also published by Hirmer Publishers.

One of the finest art books ever produced. . . . Working in extremely challenging conditions, particularly in the narrow, almost unreachable second and third stories of the Sumtsek, van Ham put together a masterpiece. The true achievement, however, lies not merely in the completeness of the photographic record but--as with his previous books--in his ability to convey the interlacing layers of light and shadow, the uneven textures of surface and color, and the emotional punch these images from a thousand years ago are still able to deliver, even to a viewer who knows nothing of Buddhist iconography and ritual practice. . . . At the heart of van Ham's artistic enterprise is his uncanny gift for showing us, in the paintings he has photographed, this continuous, ravishing evanescence. Once one takes in this truth of transience and sees, with open eyes, its logic and inherent wonder, the most remarkable feeling of freedom and happiness sets in." --David Shulman "New York Review Daily"