国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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Here the rNying-ma-pa monks grow long hair which is never combed, and gives them a savage appearance. The best specimens of this uncivilized order of saints can, however, be seen at Pyin in Spiti. Although I am convinced of the correctness of the assertion that the monastery is of remote origin, this statement cannot be confirmed by documentary evidence. The present building does not appear to be of many years' standing, nor the few idols contained in it. At the monastery, however, they have an ancient and beautiful wood carving of teak wood, representing Buddha surrounded by Bödhisattvas. All the Bödhisattvas are of the primitive and simple type. (Fig. 1).

Not far from the bKra-shis-lhun-grub monastery, a little above the line of cultivation, are the ruins of an old nunnery, called Jo-moi dgan pa. It consists of three separate ruined houses, a mani wall covered with white pebbles and two mchod-rten. The nunnery was abandoned only a hundred years ago, so people told me.

1 See J. A. S. B., Vol, L, p 202.

are the ruins of an ancient castle, mkhar. People told me that they had formerly to live on that rock (probably before 1650, when they came under Bashahr). They left the rock on account of many accidents in consequence of their getting drunk. I visited the site, but saw nothing beyond heaps of loose stones with fragments of rude pottery Some of the rooms can still be traced. The Tibetans of Li as well as of Kanáwar in general are distinguished from those of Spiti, Ladakh and Shipke by the fashion in which they wear their hair. The men of Kandwar wear their hair like the people of Bashahr. No long pigtails are seen here. The same is the case in Lahul where also the long pigtail has disappeared. The Hindu rulers of Bashahr and Kulú were apparently against it.

The bKra-shis-lhun-grub monastery of Li is asserted to be of ancient origin. This may be true, for it belongs to the rNyingmapa sect, the most ancient order of monks in Tibet. This sect has not founded new settlements for a long time. The abbot told me that the Li monastery was founded by Padma-sambhava, which is quite probable, if it be not even older. As Sarat Chandra Pas has shown, the rNyingmapa order has much of its literature in common with the Bonpos, the followers of the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet.l Around Lhasa, the monks of the rNyingmapa order cannot be distinguished from

other orders of the `Ç red persuasion, " as regards dress, but here in the west they can.

Fig. 1.