KANJI – Tsuglag-khang
Part of Kanji Village with the backside of the oldest temple
on the right; photo Christian Luczanits.
Description of the Monument and Work Techniques
by John Harrison and the conservation team
The Kanji Tsuglagkhang is a small square building on an open eastwards sloping site; its mud brick walls rest on stone foundations. The most distinctive features externally are the two projecting brick string courses, carried on cantilevered willow sticks, which run round three sides of the building at roof level. On the south is an open entrance porch formed by extending the two side walls. The porch has a central pillar and crudely-carved capital, and a lower ceiling than the temple. The parapets of the porch walls, with their two string courses, are also lower than the main walls. There is a small central doorway on the south, which provides the only light for the interior. Within the chapel a central pillar and carved capital carry the main east-west beam, which is also supported at the outer ends by unusual brackets and struts. Secondary beams which are covered with wooden boards run from the main beam to the north and south walls.
Kanji Temple before structural repairs;
photo Christian Luczanits.
Deflection of the main beam caused
by the movement of the East wall;
photo Christian Luczanits.
The building is made of mud bricks on stone foundations. The walls are plastered with a mud mortar, which is covered by several layers of white wash. On the entrance wall, under some layers of this white wash, wall paintings were uncovered.
In Tibetan the white wash material is called „dkar rtsi“, and can be translated with “white wash” Also in Ladakh Karsi („dkar rtsi“) can be found on all historic buildings for the external whitewash and, many times often also as a primer for paintings. It is collected from various deposits all over Ladakh. Different material analyses have demonstrated variuos results and further samples from different places in Ladakh1, brought to light that Karsi best can be described as decomposed stone material and that each of the various deposits Karsi has a slightly different composition and consistency, depending on the composition of the former stone material. The investigated samples from Kanji showed a silvery shiny material with a fatty/talcum-like touch and consist of some very fine-grained carbonate minerals and fibrous serpentine minerals.
It can be deduced from its macroscopic appearance that the wood used for the temple construction and the decorative elements is a deciduous, but soft, wood like poplar or willow tree.
Wood of differing quality has been used, but all the wooden elements have several knots and growth defects which probably has to be ascribed to the lack of wood in this Himalayan region.
The woodworking has been executed with an axe. Only the more rectangular ceiling joist indicates the use of a saw, whereas the smaller ceiling beams obviously have been freed from their bark; they still have remains of bark and sapwood.
The ceiling construction is executed using a long east-west joist which carries the twelve ceiling beams. The ten ceiling compartments are covered with wooden boards of different width.
Ceiling construction, white area is marking the old ceiling, yellow area is the new ceiling;
graphic Ahrends / Birnthaler.
The whole construction is supported by a pillar in the middle of the room and by brackets and struts going into the west and east walls.
The two capitals of the pillars in the temple interior and the porch are the only elements with woodcarvings.
Capital of exterior pillar;
photo Gerold Ahrends.
Capital of interior pillar;
photo Gerold Ahrends.
The bracket and strut constructions are the only elements with polychrome paint.
Bracket and strut construction in the temple interior;
photos Gerold Ahrends.
The polychrome concept corresponds with that of the wall paintings and sculptures. The colours are yellow, blue and green and are applied on a whitish prime coating.
No sign of any former painting could be identified on the wooden ceiling. The base of the pillar is painted red, which probably was a more recent renovation measure.
Bottom section of the interior pillar;
photo Gerold Ahrends.
The wooden elements on the exterior have several monochrome red layers of paint, which are in parts nearly lost due to weathering.
Weathered capital of the exterior pillar;
photo Gerold Ahrends.
The paint was directly applied to the wooden surface without prime coating.
1Investigations made by A. Küng, Expert Center Zürich