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

76

S

anskrit school at Leh ; but the school soon came to an end, and the book was then placed in this mchod-reen. mChod-riens of this kind, which serve chiefly as receptacles f or old and useless manuscripts, remind me strongly of the Jewish Genizas.

The hill behind the town of Leh is called rNam-rgyal-rts-e-mo. On the top there are the ruins of the royal palace which was built by bKra-shis-rnam-rgyal (c. 1520 A.D.)

As I had often visited this site during my former stay at Leh, I had not intended to visit it again on this occasion. Owing, however, to the return of the Italian, Dr. Filipo de Filipi, of the Duke of Abruzzi's mountaineering expedition, with his wife and brother, it was decided to show them some of the sights of Leli. One forenoon was accordingly set apart for a trip to the top of rNam-rgyal-rtsé-mo, Mr. Reichel of the Moravian Mission accompanying us. I had no reason to regret having been of the party, for on this occasion I noticed a few things which I had overlooked before.

The Maitrèya temple on the rNam-rgyal-rtse-mo is apparently the oldest, and is in

all probability identical with the " Red College " built by King 'aBum-lde, 500 years ago. It contains an inscription in praise of the reformer bTsong-kha-pa ; and, among many other frescoes, a picture of the b Kra-shis-lhun-po Monastery in Tibet. This picture shows the group of buildings which make up the large monastery, and there is a long inscription attached to it which is distributed all over the picture. Although this inscription, as well as the other one, is in very bad preservation, several sentences can be made out. As masons or architects are therein mentioned, it probably refers to a restoration of the temple. The name of a great minister, Phyag-rdor, is given in one of the inscriptions. He is possibly the same minister Phyag-rdor who is mentioned in the Daru rock inscription. I am inclined to think, for reasons which I will state later on, that Phyag-rdor served under Lha-chen Bha-gan, c. 1470-1500 A.D. In that case the inscriptions in this temple may date from the latter half of the 15th century. I ordered both of them to be copied. On the right and left hand side of the huge Maitréya statue, there are fragmentary traces of two other statues which once stood there. This is in agreement with a statement in the r Gyal-rabs.

There is another temple, of red colour, on the top of the same hill, namely, the temple

o E " the four Lords " (m G on-khang) . This is the very one which was erected by king bKra-shis-rnam-rgyal c. 400 years ago, as stated in the chronicles. K. Marx was assured of its existence by bKra-shis-btsan-phel, his lama friend, but he was unable to visit it. It contains very artistically executed figures of " the four Lords " which are about from three to eight feet high. The principal figure represents rNam-thos-sras

(VaiSravana). All four figures were covered with blankets ; but these were removed

with the exception of the one which covered VaiSravana. With regard to the latter image we were told that it is exhibited only once a year. The lama showed us, however, a fresco of VaiSravana on the wall, where he is represented in sexual union with his Aakti. As these images belong to the few in Ladakh which can be dated, they are of the greatest importance for the history of Tibetan art. Among the frescoes on the walls, I found one on the right band side of the door which represented gorgeously dressed men with Yarkandi turbans on their heads. I could not understand the presence