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

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one of the old temples of Sungra. Then there arose the custom of building with superimposed pyramidal roofs one on the top of another, the upper ones decreasing in size ; the whole structures reminding us of Burmese Pagodas. Such temples we have at Sungra, Manáli in Kula, and probably also at Nachar.1

The religious buildings of the Hill-type are distinguished by their wood carvings. Mention has been made of he almost life size figures of lions on the beams of the roof. The most prominent figure among the ornaments, is the full-blown lotus (padma) with leaves arranged radially. This ornament was believed by Captain Harcourt to be of Buddhist origin. As has been shown by Professor Grünwedel, however, the wheel and the lotus are by no means purely Buddhist emblems. The same must be said with regard to the snake and bird ornaments which are frequently met with. The continual warfare between Garudas and Nàgas was a favourite topic among the hill tribes long before the rise of Buddhism. Representations of the human figure are also of frequent occurrence among these wood carvings. But they are by far inferior to the representations of animals and look very much like the effigies of men on ancient rock carvings. The types are stiff and conventionalised, as if on the way to become pictographs. The wooden eaves-boards which are often seen on the edges of roofs, form a very pretty kind of ornament. Many of the roofs or gable beams end in dragon heads with open mouths. Of the rams' heads at the end of such beams mention has been made.

We passed through Jan gi on the 30th June. Tibetan mani walls are now becoming frequent, but up to this place they contained nothing beyond endless repetitions of the

Őm mani padme   Here I found for the first time on our expedition a maui wall
with a votive tablet on one end. This Rhows that the knowledge of the Tibetan language is more general here than in the previous villages. The tablet was, however, so much

worn that I could not read much beyond the words Khungs-btsun ga-ga-che, " the great nobleman of excellent origin." Neither this nor any of the preceding mani walls look as if they were of great antiquity. In the district between Chini and Poo Lamaism has made progress in outward show during the last thirty years or so without, however, ousting Hinduism.

Opposite Jangi lies the village of Kinam with a fine castle on a rock above the river. It was built, it is said, by the Raid of Bashahr.

After Jangi, the country begins to show a Tibetan character. Vegetation becomes very scarce, and only a kind of Juniper, generally known by the name of Pencil Cedar (the holy tree of the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet) makes us realize that we are not travelling on the moon. The pencil cedar never forms forests, but at best dots a hillside with a tree to every 500 square yards or so. Also the road, which up to this ha,l done great credit to the Public Works Department (to which I am indebted in particular for the hospitality of their bungalows), becomes more and more uncivilised, and reminds one of the days of hardships when Gerard travelled here almost a century ago. After this

' As I said before, I did not get to see the Nachar temple, but in Gordon Forbes' book Simla to Shipki in Tibct, the Nachar temple is compared to Burmese temples. Similar temples in the vicinity of Simla and Kőtgur were not examined on our tour.