THE 740-YEAR-OLD monastery of Deng Gompa, located in the Tibetan town of Ganzi, was reportedly commissioned by Mongol emperor Kublai Khan to help spread the word of Buddhism in the former Tibetan kingdom of Kham. It still stands today, covered with murals depicting scenes of 13th-century religious devotion: life-sized Buddhist deities, pilgrims travelling to distant temples, disciples praying under trees and images from the wheel of life.
Once considered to be of little significance, Deng Gompa and its murals have been largely ignored until recently. Now, they are buzzing with attention. Maroon-clad monks carry buckets of concrete to reinforce the second floor, while illustrators touch up the murals by going over them with fluorescent paints and then topping their masterpieces with a glossy coat of varnish.
'Now they are more beautiful,' says a proud Rimpoche Kusho Shangye, who sports a brown cloak, cowboy hat, 1960s-styled sunglasses and two gold front teeth. 'We are working to preserve cultural heritage.'
The Rimpoche is head lama of another eminent monastery, the nearby Ganzi Gompa; team leader for the Deng Gompa restoration process; and a man said to be a reincarnated Buddha himself. He is also a deputy chairman for the local government, and helped build a health clinic and school for Ganzi's underprivileged. This is typical at a time when many of Kham's high lamas are entwined in Chinese politics, an arrangement that helps them assure their monasteries' survival.
In Tibetan Buddhist belief, all phenomena are considered to be temporary. For the local people, the Khampas, it's not the age of the murals that's important; it's what they represent that is significant. This is perhaps why the monks of Deng Gompa don't seem to be overly concerned about doing an authentic restoration, which would cost millions of dollars. In fact, the Rimpoche's initial plan was to knock Deng Gompa down entirely and start again. But after witnessing the work other non-government organisations put into restoring monasteries in the region, he decided to go half way - keeping the old artwork but jazzing it up with vibrant colours and a thick coat of gloss.
'They are butchering it,' says Pamela Logan, founder of US-based Kham Aid, as the Rimpoche takes us on a guided tour of the ancient relics. Logan spent several years painstakingly restoring another Kham monastery, the centuries-old Pewar Gompa, which was so remote she had to build a road to gain access to it.