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– The First Castle In Tibet
Dungkar Piyang Caves has a history of 1100 years, and the murals in the caves are possibly the oldest in the Ngari region. The wall painting has much in common with the Silk Road cave murals of Dunhuang in mainland China.
The oldest temple at Dungkar is attributed to Princess Lhei-Metok, daughter of King YeshiÖ in the 10th century. However, the most prominent building nowadays is Tashi Choling. Tashi Choling was built for Tsongkapa’s student Ngawang Drakpa in the 15th century.
Piyang is around 3km from Dungkar at the far end of the valley. The oldest building in Piyang was the Karsak Lhakang, attributed to King YeshiÖ. Both the Dungkar and Piyang caves have incredibly gorgeous paintings.
These Dungkar and Piyang caves are the best visited en route between Darchen and Zanda. Nowadays, the road to these caves is paved and easy to access by any vehicle.
Once you reach the caves, you need to look for the caretaker older man to open. He will probably ask for some money to open the doors of the caves.
Inside the Dungkar Piyang caves, there are beautiful paintings of Buddhas decorated with the flying apsara or the flying goddess, which is a different painting style compared to the Guge kingdom. From these paintings, one will know these works were done by the Indian artist 1000 years ago.
It’s strictly not possible to take pictures inside the caves, but one can take time to explore all these gorgeous paintings. Inside, the caves were very dark and bringing a torch or mobile is a great help to see all the details inside.
