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Residents do their laundry or sit out on the open galleries, children fly kites on the roof and women sit at stalls selling scarves, incense and alcohol to be offered in the chapels of the protector deities. Built in fine detail to modest proportions, the main temple hall is an important example of Tibetan architecture of the 19th century, and it has preserved superb wall-paintings. For the Lhasa Old City conservation and rehabilitation project launched by Tibet Heritage Fund (THF) in 1996, Rme ru rnying pa had a special significance: it was the living heart of a small community living in the shadow of the golden roofs (rgya phib) of the Lha sa Gtsug lag khang.

Diemberger (eds). 2000. dBa’ bzhed: The Royal Narrative concering the bringing of the Buddha’s Doctrine to Tibet. Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenchaften Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften 291. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenchaften. D. 2008. The Precious Lord: The History and Practice of the Cult of the Jowo 
kyamuni in Lhasa, Tibet. PhD dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Weise and Zerenduoji. 2006. Sha jie : si shi nian de ji yi jin qu, jing tou xia de Xizang wen ge, di yi ci gong kai = Forbidden memory: Tibet during the Cultural Revolution.

On the middle floor are the kitchen and residential rooms for the senior monks, including a large south-facing sitting room (rab gsal) with balcony, for the use of the Gnas chung abbot. The sitting room has preserved original pillars and beams decorated similarly to the assembly hall. No original murals could be recovered here except for decorations around the entrance area, as the old plaster had been completely removed before RME RU RNYING PA 27 1985. On the room’s western wall, a mural showing the court of the ‘Great Fifth’ Dalai Lama based on a similar one at Gnas chung was commissioned by the project and painted by Lhasa-based painters in 1999 using mineral colours.