By HILARY DUNCANSON
ENGINEERS at the University of Edinburgh have helped to preserve an endangered ancient temple in India that houses some of the greatest artworks in the Buddhist world, it emerged yesterday.
Three students and two members of staff at the university flew to Asia to examine the construction and vulnerability of the 1,000-year-old Sumtsek Temple in the Ladakh region of northern India, also known as Little Tibet.
The wooden temple’s murals and iconography are some of the finest examples of Kashmiri art of the period.
But the fragile, three-storey Himalayan temple is threatened by climate change and the proposed construction of a 57-metre-high dam at a hydro-electric scheme on the adjacent Indus river.
As part of the final year of their masters degree, the three students at the University’s School of Engineering and Electronics collaborated with the Indian heritage organisation, Intach, to evaluate the threats posed to the temple’s long-term survival.
All of the information they gathered in the March visit will be used by Intach to help with the preservation of the site.
Dr Colin Pritchard, a senior lecturer in chemical engineering, said that he and the team hoped to be able to return to the country to follow up their work.
He said: “One of the very impressive things out there was how very friendly Ladakh people are. Everyone was extremely friendly.
“Intach is seeking funding for an earthquake-resistance study and we would like to be closely involved with that.”
The landmark is housed within a complex of temple buildings, named the Alchi Gompa site, which is one of only four surviving monasteries founded in the 10th and 11th centuries.
The site itself has not been in operation as a working monastery since the 16th century.
