Travel to Guge Kingdom

On the way from the county town to the Guge Hill, tourists can occasionally see earthen walls, which are traces of the Guge Kingdom.

First of all, tourists will pass the entrance at the foot of the hill and walk along the trail. They will see four ancient temples, including the Red Temple, the White Temple, the king's palace and the meeting hall. The White Temple and the Red Temple are about the same size, covering about 300 square meters. Within the temple there are 36 square pillars. The pillars and the ceiling are covered with colored drawings of patterns and figures of Buddha, and all the walls are covered with frescoes of different subjects. The White Temple boasts a precious mural painting of kings of Tupo and the genealogy of the Guge king. The painting also vividly portrays a group of girls dancing to the accompaniment of drums and horns. Even with the passing of several hundred years, these frescos remain bright and lustrous.

Around the temples there are 10-odd caves, in which many ancient weapons, such as shields, armatures, knives and swords, are still well preserved. The dry weather has helped preserve these cultural relics.
The two paths from the hillside to the palace halls on the hilltop are the two man-made tunnels. The path beside the northern cliff is piled with some cobblestones, which are traces of the fight of the past. The path winds north until it reached a courtyard, of which only the four walls were left. It was the palace where the King used to discuss official businesses with the officials.

The upper part of the hill holds the Winter Hall, where the royal family spent the winter. They are empty now. Only the frescos and wooden engravings in Tancheng Hall are well preserved.

Down at the foot of the hill is a small house where the gatekeeper of the ruins lives. The gatekeeper sometimes leads the tourists to see the Dry Corpses’ Cave, which looks no different from the outside. It is located under a rock, about 2 meters from the ground. However, the cave is very spacious inside, piled with dry corpses without heads. There are many stories about the cave. One story goes that after the Ladakh army had defeated the Guge Kingdom, they killed those Guge soldiers who would not surrender to them and threw their decapitated bodies into the cave.

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