Tsewang shined a flashlight onto the wall, and I noticed the room was lined in murals. One depicted a Buddha who sat cross-legged atop a cloud beside a bare-breasted lady holding a conch shell in a single hand and providing a silver bowl within the different. There have been countless figures set in complicated and vibrant, if light, scenes. As we labored our means by way of the darkness, Tsewang pointed his mild to photographs representing the cosmos, the wheel of life, and a whole bunch of deities. “There’s Guru Rinpoche,” he mentioned, illuminating a determine in blue and crimson robes, the principal founding father of Tibetan Buddhism, who’s believed to have traveled by way of Mustang within the eighth century.

Upon nearer inspection, I seen that lots of the work have been disintegrating. One was riddled with pockmarks. One other was furrowed with cracks, and in locations the plaster bulged like a blister. For hundreds of years, this area close to the Tibetan Plateau acquired little rain, however the local weather right here is altering quickly, and the rammed-earth construction is dealing with moisture ranges it was by no means designed to deal with.

“Up to now, the rain and melting snow would solely soak by way of one layer of brick,” Tsewang mentioned. “Now the storms are fewer however greater. Generally we’ll get a winter’s price of snow in a single large spring storm. When it melts all of sudden, that is what occurs.”

Moisture seeps deep into the earthen partitions and penetrates the dry inside. When the water evaporates, salt crystals kind behind the paint, inflicting the murals to peel. This course of is going on at websites throughout the Himalaya and is nearly not possible to cease as soon as began. “Even the climate is conspiring towards us,” Tsewang mentioned.

In a passage behind the towering Buddha, Tsewang pointed to a spot on its hip the place the statue was crudely patched with mud. “About 20 years in the past,” he mentioned, “thieves broke in right here and stole the gsung”—the treasures that consecrate and animate the statue.

Historically, ritual sculptures, no matter dimension, have a hole centre. Throughout the consecration course of, they’re full of written prayers and worthwhile objects like agate beads, bronze collectible figurines, gold, and treasured stones. The treasure helps animate the statue, however the valuables additionally can be utilized to rebuild the monastery ought to it ever be broken or destroyed.

In accordance with Charles Ramble, a scholar who researched the theft, and native leaders, a Tibetan lama arrived at Gompa Gang round 2000 and supplied to reestablish a neighborhood of nuns. Thrilled by the supply, native representatives let him see the karchak, a guide that features key info concerning the constructing, together with the situation of the gsung. Afterward, the visiting lama departed, promising to return quickly. A short time later, a caretaker found the opening within the Buddha’s hip. There was no file of what had been hidden contained in the statue, however no matter treasures had been animating this deity for hundreds of years have been gone. The lama was by no means heard from once more. Ever since, Gompa Gang has been thought of powerless. Tsewang advised me hardly anybody goes to wish there anymore.