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

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was built. I should have visited it, had we not been far too tired for such a climb in the evening after our arrival, as well as next morning.

On one of the mani walls of Kaze, I saw a fairly old votive tablet dating from the time of the Ladakhi régime in Spiti. It was written in bad orthography and was in a poor state of preservation. The " national anthem " was similar to that of the Guge stones, but in the place where the Guge version has the Satluj (gLcang-clien-kha-bab), here we find the Indus (S'eng-gel -kha-bab). What interested me particularly, was the spelling of the name Leh, the Ladakhi capital. We find it often spelled sLel in native documents, but the spelling sLe is also not infrequent. According to the ideas of the natives of Ladakh, the correct spelling of the name is sLes. The word sLes (or sLas in Lower Ladakh) signifies a walled enclosure, such as is set up by nomads. Leh is supposed to have developed out of a Tibetan nomads' camp. The Kaze inscription confirms this derivation, for here we find the name of the capital spelt sLes. I may add, that this spelling is corroborated by the Tibetan geographical work 'aDzam-gling-ye-shes where the same spelling is found.2 The name of the capital of Spiti is spelt here Drag-mkharrtse (against Brang-nakhar on other stones) . A nobleman, Ga-ga Sod-nams, is mentioned as having held the office of Resident at the castle, but the name of the king of Leh is missing.

We reached the Ki (dKyil) monastery at noon on August the third. Here I met with a messenger from Mr. Howell, Assistant Commissioner of Kula ; he handed me a letter from that gentleman, asking me to make the monks of the Ki monastery acquainted with the discovery of Buddha's bones at Peshawar, and to suggest to them that they should make an application to the Indian Government to let them have the relics. I gladly agreed to Mr. Howell's proposal, in particular, because it gave me an opportunity to point out to them the difference between Buddha and Christ, of whom no bones have ever been found.

But also for another reason I was anxious to visit the Ki monastery. In 1863 Mr. P. Egerton, of the Civil Service, made a tour through Spiti, together with our missionary, Mr. A. W. Heyde. A beautiful book illustrated with capital photographs, was the outcome of this journey. In this book we find the statement that the Ki monastery of Spiti was probably founded by Brom-ston, the pupil of the famous teacher Atisa, in the 11th century. The travellers apparently heard a rumour of a connection between this monastery and Brom-ston, and if they had simply stated this, they would not have been wrong. But they went further. They found a note in Körös' Tibetan Grammar, to the effect that Brom-ston had founded a monastery called Bareng (Rva-sgrengs) ; and as a village in the vicinity of Ki is called Rangrig, Mr. Egerton jumped to the conclusion that the Ki monastery of Spiti was identical with the famous Rareng monastery of the 11th century. But we know from the geographical work 'aDzam-gling-ye-shes, that the Rareng monastery is situated in the Rong district near Lhasa. It is not to be wondered at, however, that no clear traditions about the origin of the Spiti monastery exist. We read in Moorcroft and Trebeck's travels, 1820, that the Ki monastery was thoroughly ransacked

'

Seng-ge from. Sanskrit Simka.   a lion. "

2 See S. Ch. Das' translation in J. A. S. B., 1887. sLes would correspond to classical lofas.