The most Important Annual worship of Luri Gumba Upper Mustang. Ft Ven. Ani Lhakpa Dolma la.

LURI GOMPA

In the desert near from Ghara village, sandstone cliffs and bluffs have been fluted by wind and weather into fantastical formations, like serried, tapered pillars or organ pipes. These cliffs are pitted with caves, and such a cave forms the inner sanctum of Luri gompa, a small jewel of Buddhist art. The gompa, covered with a red wash, perched on a ledge on a one hundred-meter high cliff, stands out against the sand and bone-colored sandstone pillars. (A newer gompa is found below on the valley floor; although more easily accessible, it is of no art-historical interest.) The part of Luri gompa visible from the valley below is its mud-brick superstructure, perched on a ledge on one of these sandstone pillars. Photographs make it appear that entrance to the gompa is obtained by scaling this pillar, yet a winding footpath climbs one hundred meters to a door in a lower cave, inside which a notched log leads up to the gompa itself. A single entrance door opens into the outer chamber.

The outer chamber, containing a shrine, is painted very crudely, apparently at a later date than the paintings within. This outer chamber leads into the inner room, the cave within the rock.

The treasure of Luri is the inner chamber, a rounded space that was hollowed out or enlarged and smoothed within the cave. One small window provides some natural light. In the center of this chamber is a chorten, six meters high, with painted figures on all sides of its rectangular base, on its dome, and also beneath the ritual parasol atop the dome. The domed ceiling is decorated with eight painted images of Mahasiddhas, circling above the chorten. Along one wall is a set of painted figures, amd above them a row of nine small portraits of lamas.

Although no documentation has been found pertaining to this gompa, its paintings appear to be of earlier date than those in Jampa and Thubchen, perhaps by a hundred years, which would set them back to the fourteenth century, or even earlier. While the later paintings of Jampa and Thubchen belong to the later, more fully developed Tibetan style, a classical style with elements of Chinese influence, the Luri images reflect the influence of Indian and Kashmiri style. The small lama portraits may possible reflect Persian or Byzantine influence. Helmut F. Neumann has offered identifications of many of these images (see Bibliography).
The Mahasiddhas were historical persons, yogic masters, and their collective name has sometimes been translated as "great adepts." This refers not to a group of scholars but rather to promulgators and practitioners of tantrism, employing ritual and incantation, and legends ascribe magic powers to them. According to the legends, some lived in the forest or in caves, and thus Luri's cave setting is very appropriate. The Hindu god Shiva is the lord of yogins. By tradition, they are eighty-four in number. Their historical dates appear to extend between the eighth and twelfth centuries