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

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was staying behind, and when I found him, I saw that his face had become black. He appeared hardly able to support himself any longer. I found it easy to guess at his thoughts which seemed to be as follows : " Well " thought he, " have I not a right to be ill too ? Did I not walk up the high pass yesterday ? I cooked some food and got no reward ; the Khalasi dicl nothing and got a red blanket." But part with the other half of my blanket ? No, that I could not. Fortunately, I found two rupees in my pocket which I handed over to him, and lo, within no time he recovered so much that

he was seen among the foremost yaks of our caravan.

We reached the desert place Umna on that clay, and on the 9th August we marched to Nemaringmo camp which was distinguished by the proximity of a very extensive swamp, overgrown with a luxurious vegetation of alpine flowers, edelweiss, and red and yellow pedicularis. Leaves of wild rhubarb were conspicuous on the margin of the swamp. At noon of that day we stopped at a place called Baco lhamo, the ` Horn goddess,' where we noticed again signs of the occasional presence of man in these wilds in the shape of an altar of rude white stones covered with horns of sheep and goats. When entering the large swampy plain to the south of Lake Thsomo Riri, we saw a tower-like building in ruins which was explained to us as marking the frontier between Spiti and Kashmir. As the road from this camp to the lake was easier than what we had experienced during the previous days, it gave me time to review in my mind the tunas of Atisa, which it was the good fortune of our journey to throw light upon. It is due in particular to the labours of Sarat Chandra Das, that we now know something of this interesting period of Tibetan Buddhism, when Western Tibet, and in particular the vassal kings of Guge, held up the torch of guidance for the whole of Tibet.'

King Lha-bla-ma-Ye-shes-'od of Guge (1025 A.D. ), who resided at mTho-'cling (his inscription at Poo will be remembered), was not satisfied with the Tibetan form of Buddhism, as it prevailed in his dominions, and resolved to purify it by bringing it into contact with Indian Buddhism. He gave a careful education to twenty-one Tibetan boys, the name of one of whom was Rin-chen-bzang-po, and sent them to Kashmir and other parts of India to receive instruction in Sanskrit and philosophy. Although through their agency the king secured the services of thirteen Indian pandits, most of the boys died from the unhealthy climate, and only two, one of whom was Rin-clienbzang-po (Ratna-bhadra), returned to Guge.

Then the king heard of the famous teacher Atisa at the monastery of Vikramasila in Magadha and sent an embassy to him with a large quantity of gold to invite him to come to Guge. Atisa gave the following answer to the king's messengers : " Then it would appear that my going to Tibet were due to two causes : first, the desire of amassing gold, and second, the wish of attaining sainthood ! " and so he remained in Vikramasila.

King Ye-shes-'od interpreted Atisa's words in a different way from what a European would have done. He understood that the great teacher had not vet been offered

1 A detailed account of this period is found in Sarat Chandra L)as' ` Indian Pandits in the land of snow,' and the Tibetan text underlying this tale was published by the same author in the dPag-bsarn-ljon-bzang.