National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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architecture, at least in regard to its roof. It is said to be only about twenty-five years. old. In the courtyard, we found cremation tablets with figures of AvalőkitëSvara

represented with four arms and a lotus, and Mi-akhrugs-pa (A.kshőbya). Although they were also said to be of recent date, the mould from which they were cast must be decidedly old. It was possibly brought here from Kanam monastery, which claims to be old. The tablets were furnished with Tibetan inscriptions, but these were so indistinct that nothing could be read. It was just possible to see that the characters employed were Tibetan.

Above the village of Rarang, on the road, there is an old hut which is known as the

most ancient mandir of Rarang. (Plate VII, b.) It is rectangular, and has a slanting roof. The door beams are furnished with wood carvings. On the lintel, the figure of an elephant carrying a human being can be distinguished. This is possibly a representation of Indra. Of particular interest is the gable-roof which ends in the carving of a ram's head, and thus reminds us strongly of the dévatd-huts in the Manchad valley (Lahul). In its general appearance also, this mandir resembles the dévatd-huts of the Manchad valley and goes to prove that the religion of the Kandwaris was similar to that of

the Manchad people, who are closely related to them by lingual and ethnic characteristics. As this hut is practically the last specimen of Indiaii. hill architecture on the road (not taking into account a ` gate of blessing ' at Poo, which is furnished with a roof in Kandwari style), it will be well to review all the observations we have made with regard to this architecture. Under hill architecture are comprised all the structures which are composed of rubble masonry and beams of cedar wood. Of an entirely different character are the structures of the Tibetans, which consist of sun-dried bricks. The former have slanting, and the latter at roofs. On the frontier between the Tibetan and Kandwari peoples there are also some intermediate forms. There are houses built of rubble masonry with flat roofs, for instance the temple at Rogi, and houses built of sun-burnt bricks with a slanting roof, for instance the temple at Rarang.

The most elementary form of hill architecture is represented by the ancient mandir of Rarang, which consists of a one-roomed house with a rectangular ground-plan and a slanting roof. Later on, the roof assumed a concave appearance, and was often supported by a covered verandah. This type of house is much in evidence as the ordinary peasant's dwelling on the Satluj up to the Wangtu bridge, and the Nirmand temples are of this type. It was then modified in the following way. The ground plan was made square and the walls were raised. This is the type of the Kula castle towers which were introduced even into Lahul, and of the shrine of the old mandir at Urni. A beautiful combination of this rectangular house and square tower is fount] in the ancient palace of Saráhan. The Kandwari gates of blessing have another extraordinary feature ih addition to the concave roof, in that they have also the front and back walls widening out towards the gable beam. Thus the walls are further apart at the top than they are at ground level.

On the square ground plan was developed also the pyramid type of roof with four slanting sides. This we find in its simplest form in the modern temple of Urni, and in