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

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monastery, believing that this monastery would be the most suitable abode for the statue. However, a hundred men could not move it. Then a clever lama guessed that the image wished to be set up in its present place. And lo, when they tried to take it there, a single man could easily carry it.

On the evening of the 24th, I went to have a look at the castle of Kyahar which is only three miles distant from Chang. This castle is more imposing and of greater dimensions than I have yet seen in these mountains. It is supposed to have been built by the king of Rámpur (in about 1650 A.D.) who probably wished to fortify the frontiers of his new territory. People told me that the castle was famous for its beautiful frescoes, and I was sorry not to be able to go and examine them. I asked, however, Mr. Cargill, of the Public Works Department, whom I met a few days after in Spiti, to go and inspect the pictures, if his journey should take him that way. He told me afterwards that he had actually been to Kyahar and made inquiries about the frescoes. People told him that there had been pictures, but that they had all disappeared. On the way to Kyahar, I noticed a short inscription in Tókari on one of the boulders

on the roadside.   It is unintelligible, but interesting, as testifying to the use. of that
script in these parts.

I was told that there is a small, but ancient monastery at Kyahar, which local tradition also connects with the famous Rin-chen-bzang-po. It is called Lha-brang and belongs to the G-elugpa order. Although I was assured that it contained ancient pictures, I could not manage to visit it. Nor did I see the ancient stone sculpture at Kyahar which is said to be similar to the AvalőkitëSvara of. Chang, mentioned above.

On a rock below the present village of Kyahar are extensive ruins of a deserted village. I am told that the people of Kyahar were invited to settle round the present stately castle, and therefore exchanged sites.

On the 26th we started on our march through a desert which separates Spiti from the Bashahr State. We had to spend three days in absolutely bare and uninhabited country, before the first village of the territory of Spiti was reached. The first march took us to the Zangzam bridge, which spans a tributary of the Spiti river. Here the road leads through Tibetan territory for several miles, and the camp on the bridge as well as our next camp at Horling was on Tibetan ground. There are several sulphur springs in the vicinity of the bridge, which contain rather hot water. The natives have hewn out little basins in which they bathe. Crystallized sulphur and some white salt (probably borax) are found near the wells. I collected some water plants which I found growing in the hot sulphurous water.

The 26th July was spent in the same desert on our march to Horling, a desert camping-place on the Spiti river. I had expected to have an archæological holiday in this uninhabitable region. But that was not so. Strange to say, we passed by mani walls, from time to time, and several of the stones placed on, or by the side of, the walls, were of unusual interest. I found here four or five stones which must have been carved in the 15th century. They contained the names of the great reformer Tsong-kha-pa and three of his contemporaries, _ mKhas-grub-pa (1384-1437), Lha-dbang-blo-gros (1388-1462), -and

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