Antique Tibetan Temple For Sale

A Family Temple Shrine from the Queen of Spiti
This is a complete temple room in original condition, from the Palace in the Himalayan Spiti Valley, a remote mountain desert region in the North East of India. The room includes a 300-400 year old painted ceiling, a highly decorated shrine wall, a carved pillar and cross beam, sacred objects of worship, carpets, carved wooden “Tadom” chests, cabinets and prayer tables, and even prayer robes from the attending monk.

We are looking for a buyer who would like to purchase the complete collection (individual items are not for sale), so it can be appreciated and preserved in its entirety. It would be ideally suited for a lover of Buddhism as a sacred meditation room, for a Tibetan museum exhibit or authentic film sets. As our research has gone it apprears to be the largest complete temple, or shrine ever to have made it out of India and Tibet to the West.

History
In 1996 the queen of Spiti had no choice but to move house when a glacier threatened to take over her old Palace. To help raise money for the move a local tribal leader and his horse-men transported each piece of this shrine out of the remote valley by horseback into the Kulu Manali area of Himachal Pradesh in India. Just after doing a 21-day silent retreat in the mountains, and with no particular experience with antiques, we unexpectedly met this tribal leader and decided to buy the complete collection, motivated to keep the shrine intact rather than see it sold off piece by piece. After many adventurous steps along the way, the temple is now in California, USA and we are hoping to find a buyer who will appreciate and protect this rare and ancient treasure.

Spiti Palace	On the Road	Shrine and Monk	Makara Ceiling	Makara Beam
Makara Head	Ceiling Detail	Shrine Wall	Wall Detail	Mani Stone
Tadom	Tadom Detail	Painted Chest	Table Details	Lama Robe

Description
The shrine is approximately 4.5 meters wide and 2 meters high by 5 meters long and needs to be assembled inside an existing structure, preferably in a dry climate. The ceiling is supported by rafters which tie into the central support column with a carved Makara or lion head at the top. The picture with the monk shows the lay-out of the shrine as originally assembled in Spiti, but due to the low quality of the photograph colors do not truly represent how it looks. The ceiling and Maraka are smoked and smudged by Yak lamps and estimated at 3-400 years old and the orange shrine wall which has been lacquered is less old, estimated at closer to 100.

The eight Tadom-chests vary in size and design but all are carved, some are painted and most have snow lions carved on the doors and look like the one pictured standing alone.
There are four wooden folding prayer tables carved with a dragon-like protector and two birds, and one prayer table which does not fold that is beautifully carved with a dragon.

The “Mani Stone” is a carved slate, approximately 45 cm wide by 35 cm high and 5 cm thick, marked by the repeated blessing with Yak butter.
Carpets and the attending monk’s ceremonial robes are also included.

If you are interested we would be happy to hear from you and can send further information and photos for details.

We bought this Temple in great reverence, a spur-of-the-moment decision, with no plan as to where it was meant to end up. It is our hope that through this website we can find a suitable new home for this sacred treasure, so blessed with years of prayer.

We welcome hearing from you for all expressions of interest, inquiries or feedback.
Rafia and Disha.