Baima Duoji, Founder & Chairman of Songtsam Group, which includes the award-winning collection of boutique hotels, resorts & tours in the Tibet & Yunnan Provinces of China, announced a joint project with The Palace Museum, Gongga Qude Temple, to reprint an exquisite album called, “Murals of Gongga Qude Temple: A Milestone in the History of Tibetan Buddhist Art.” Baima, in making the announcement of the reprinting of this historic album, noted that the urgency of this project was to “make the beauty of these historic murals, vivid carriers of Tibetan Buddhist art and culture, available to more people.”

Gongga Qude Temple stands quietly, 60 kilometers (approx. 37.2 miles) outside of Lhasa (Tibet). As an important temple of Tibetan Buddhism, this quaint temple is like a museum frozen in time. In 2015, “Murals of Gongga Qude Temple: A Milestone in the History of Tibetan Buddhist Art” was published for the first time. Limited by funds, only a few books were printed, and they were mainly donated to various temples, universities, research institutes and others who were interested in the murals.

The content in this new reprint is based on the digitized results of the murals of Gongga Qude Temple. In fact, Luo Wenhua, Research Librarian of The Palace Museum and Director of the Institute of Tibetan Buddhist Cultural Relics, arranged for some of the murals to be re-photographed and added to this new Album.

Baima Duoji noted, “Every Songtsam guest, as they travel from Lhasa Airport to the Songtsam Linka Retreat Lhasa, pass the Gongga Qude Temple, yet few people know that there is an ancient temple on the roadside.” He added, “These murals are a splendid and rare work of art. After nearly 600 years of changes, we can still see the lines and colors left by the masters on this wall today, which is a kind of unspeakable luck.” The Gongga Qude Temple Tour has now become an important part of the Songtsam Lhasa experience, an excellent “starting” point for guests to enter the spiritual world of the locals.

“In the land where the Songtsam properties are located, there are often treasures that are close at hand but unknown, like Gongga Qude Temple,” explained Baima. “Songtsam hopes that the reprinting of this ancient Album will support Songtsam’s efforts to preserve the culture, so that the beauty of these lands can be known, understood, even appreciated and touched by people from around the world.”