UPSC Prelims 2014 · Question 29 of 100
UPSC Prelims 2014 question on Buddhist Shrines Locations
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2014
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectArt and Culture
- TopicIndian Architecture
- DifficultyHard
- TypeMatch
With reference to Buddhist history, tradition and culture in India, consider the following pairs:
Famous Shrine : Location
1. Tabo monastery and temple complex : Spiti Valley
2. Lhotsava Lhakhang : Zanskar Valley
3. Alchi Temple Complex : Ladakh
Which of the above pairs given is/are correctly matched?
Show answer
Answer: C. 1 and 3 only
Verdict
The answer is 1 and 3 only. Tabo is in Spiti and Alchi is in Ladakh, but Lhotsava Lhakhang is not in the Zanskar Valley.
Analysis
Pair 1 is CORRECT. The Tabo monastery and temple complex stands in the Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh. Pair 3 is CORRECT. The Alchi temple complex lies in Ladakh and is celebrated for its early wall paintings. Pair 2 is INCORRECT. The Lhotsava Lhakhang, the temple of the great translator Rinchen Zangpo, is at Nako village in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, at the eastern end of the Kinnaur valley between the Greater Himalaya and the Zanskar range.
Source
Buddhist Channel reporting on the Nako temple complex.
How to crack it
All three sites belong to the same western Himalayan Buddhist world, so recognising the names gains nothing and the question turns on one displaced valley. When two of three pairs are ones you can confirm, check whether the option structure lets a single rejection settle the answer, as it does here. If you cannot confirm any pair in a set of unfamiliar monastery names, this is a fair question to skip rather than to guess.