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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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was believed to he that of Padma-sambhava who lived two and a half centurie& earlier.'

Opposite the present town, on the other shore of the little lake of Nako, there are the extensive ruins of the ancient town, with the Jo's (chief's) fort above it. This ancient town is said to have been destroyed by the Ladakhis, probably on one of their punitive expeditions against their vassal kings of Guge. Where the present village

stands, there used to be only stables in earlier days, as was also the case in Li. The chiefs of Nako are still in existence, and a votive tablet by one of their ladies was found and copied in the temple of Lo-tsa-bai-lha-khang. All the mayai walls round about Nakoare of recent date, like those of Li, the most ancient name mentioned on them being-that of Metar (Mahindar) Singh of Bashahr.

North-west of Nako, there are a number of deserted villages which show that

in former days the cultivated area about Nako was larger than it is at present. I gathered the following names as those of the now deserted settlements : Khartag,. Jadong, Gulbug, Bemgrol and Therang thangka. Most of them were deserted a long time back, but one of them only six years ago. Two or three people had lost their lives. when the water course was mended, which was considered a sufficient reason for giving up the settlement altogether. Let me add that Nako was one of the places visited by Csoma de Körös.

We reached the village of Chang on the 24th July, after a march through a moun-

tain desert without any special interest. The locally famous monastery of Tra-slii-tong-yang (bEra-shis-mthong-dbyangs) is situated on the opposite bank of the brook of Chang, on a rock, in the middle of a deserted village. We were not in a position to visit the temple, as its key had been taken to Tibet by the lama in charge. The monastery is asserted to have been founded by Padma-sambhava, and to contain his image. The lamas belong to the ' aBrugpa order.

Here again, in former days, all the peasants had to live on the rock around the

monastery and castle, where there are many ruined houses. In. the middle of the present village of Chang, there is a life-size stone statue of Avalaitésvara half buried in a maO wall. It is a very rude and ugly image. The small figure of Amitábha can be plainly seen in his headdress. The statue has only two arms and is painted white. The legend which is connected with this image, is of some interest, because it is a version of a tale connected with Langdarma's persecution of Buddhism.' The Chang legend runs as follows :—Many centuries ago, the image was carried down from some higher place by a flood. The Chang people found it, and tried to carry it up to the Tra-shi-tong-yang

The earlicstíricture of Nako village and monastery is found on Plate XXII of Reise des Prinzen Waldemar von Preussen, ) 845. of particular interest are the slanting roofs of several houses shown in that picture. Dr. Hoffineister, who was of the Prince's party, gives the following items with regard to the ancient images of the Nako temples. In one of the halls, the travellers were shown the following images : Dordschi Simba (rpo-rie-sems-dpi;) ; Nanatheia (sNang-bamthu-yas) ; Vinschin-jungne (Rio-chen-byung-ldan) ; Thevadna (9) ; Nabarnangse (rNam. par-snang-mázad), and a frame-%coil: with a'Tschakium (Kc ,vvg, G:,ruda). This was evidently the Lha-khang-ched-po temple. In another temple, they saw a Dulma (sGrcl-ma) with a Tschakium (Iihyung, Garuça) above her. This was evidently the Lha-khang gonq-u a temple.

2 See Ladrags rGyal-reels under Langdarma.