A Turk in the Dukhang?: Comparative Perspectives on Elite Dress in Medieval Ladakh and the Caucasus

The murals in the Dukhang and Sumtsek shrines at Alchi in Ladakh have long attracted interest for the inclusion of both Indie and Islamicate elements in their west Tibetan Buddhist iconography.¹ The age of the paintings is still contested, with suggested dates ranging from the eleventh to the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries.² If, as many believe, the paintings in the Dukhang date to the decades around 1200, and those in the Sumtsek slightly later, then both co­incide with a dizzying array of artistic developments in the Islamic world. These include the emergence in Iraq of a tradition of