One of the first important cultural relic sites under protection, the grand palace ruins stand on a 300-meter tall yellow earth hill on the banks of the Xiangquang River in the Zaborang District at about 18 km away from the Zada County. The Xiangquang River runs northwest from the Lake Manasarovar. The river valley is broad with the fertile earth . Rising abruptly from the river bank, the ruins add much mystery to this area.
The local regime known as Guge Kingdom started in the 10th century by the descendants of the Tobo Kingdom. In the 9th century, when Lang Dharma was assassinated, the Tubo Kingdom fell apart as civil wars surged. Jide Nyimagon, the great-grandson of Lang Dharma, led his followers to Ngari and set up the Guge Kingdom. The 3 sons of Jide Nyimagon and their descendants later set up 3 regimes: Guge, Ladakh and Burang. The region had a glorious past. At its peak, the regime covered not only the entire Ngari, but also extended to Kashmir and today’s Pakistan. There are many opinions on how the Guge Kingdom disappeared. A widely acclaimed view says that in 1635, soldiers from the Ladakh Regime finally conquered the Guge Palace and ravaged the place into ruins. Every human being here was hunted down. The last King of Guge and his family members were captured and taken away. Nothing was ever heard of them. The great Guge Kingdom thus bade adieu to the stage of history.
Architectural group has spotted 1,416 surviving pieces of architectural sites and some are decorated with various formation figures of Buddha and scriptures. The larger works of architecture of includes the Red Temple, White Temple and the King’s palace. Both the temples are at same size covering 300 square meters and 36 square pillars lifting the temple inside, mural paintings are on every wall in White temple with a special painting about the Guge kings. In the Red Temple, one of holy mural painting tells about the wel-coming of the Atisha (the great Indian master from Bengal) to Tibet in the ancient time and in the painting, some local woman’s are with drums and horns to show their gratitude for the coming honorable master.
At present, Guge kingdom is lost everything except the beauties left after 16th century, the clay forests make a safeguard fence to the whole area with deep-rooted culture and unfathomable enigmas, and however everything is changing everywhere and now the Guge kingdom is also changing with the renovation and development of Ngari Prefecture’s acts. They are taking care of everything inside the prefecture and they still working hard on such projects to make a better place for every tourist, traveler and especially for the locals. These projects are showing positive results in Tibet so that the coming generations of whole world can see the legendry histories and mythical places on this mother earth.