| | 44 visited on our journey, with the exception of Tabo. Why did Tabo alone escape destruction ? I am inclined to believe that Tabo was under Bashahr in those times, and that the Dögräs did not wish to interfere with the government of that state. We found three, probably modern, stucco statues in the central hall. They represent Byams-pa (Maitröya), seated crosslegged, with a kind of tea-pot in his hand ; Buddha ; and the lama Chos-drag, a contemporary of Srong-btsan-sgam-po. The statue of Chos-drag looks like the illustration of the same personage in Grünwedel's Mythology. There are frescoes on the walls of this temple, but now only very little of them can be made out. The following figures could be distinguished : 'Od-dpag-med (Amitábha) ; Padma-sambhava ; and dGe-bai-bshes-gnyen (Kalyána-mitra). Above one of the doors there is an inscription in modern characters and orthography which. I was told, contained the name of dGe-bai-bshes-gnyen. I found it impossible to read it in the dark. Above the entrance to the monastery, there is suspended the stuffed skin of a goat. I was informed that this goat during her lifetime occasionally became possessed with a spirit which made her jump about in an extraordinary way. Therefore she was treated kindly and fed well by the monks, and after death she was stuffed, to serve as a lasting memorial of herself. Drangkhar is one of the few towns of Western Tibet which still stand on their original site, i.e. on the top of a rocky spur, and thus it is in its entirety an interesting relic of the past. The most ancient picture of this fortress is a lithograph after a drawing by Trebeck who was here in 1820. From this we learn that since then the town has not altered much in general aspect. The uppermost place on the rock is occupied by the castle which is now in possession of the Nono (chief) of Spiti. It was built by the Ladakhis who used to have a garrison here. There are tales current about the last days of Ladakhi rule, when the place was captured by the Spiti people, and its inmates were thrown down from the rock.' Judging from the ruins in the vicinity, the castle was much larger in Ladakhi times, than it is now. The present building, therefore, gives no idea of what it was like formerly. We spent Sunday, the 1st August, in this interesting place, and on Monday, the 2nd August, we marched to Kaze (map Kaja) . On the road, near Lithang, we saw a rope bridge of the old style, plaited of willow branches, as they still are in Lahul and Zangskar. (Plate XIX, b). When we were approaching Kaze, we saw the stately palace of Kyu-ling (Skyid-gling), the Norm's residence, on the opposite bank of the stream. In a side valley of Kaze, high up on the rocks, there is the bTang-rgyud or Sa-skyagong-mig monastery which belongs to the Sa-skya-pa order of lamas. Although it has a certain fame on account of its antiquity, it is believed to be inferior to the Ki monastery. The Kaze monastery has always been favoured by the Nonos of Sp iti, one of whose members takes orders as a Sa-skya-pa lama, just as the kings of Ladakh have bestowed special favour on the 'aBrug-pa order of Lamas. Gong-mig means ' the upper eye,' and at the place, where this monastery can be seen peeping out of a world of rocks, a rchod-rten 1 See my publication Die historischen und mythologischen Erinnerungen der Laliouler. Tale No. 17. |
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