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

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81

On the 9th September, I went to the Teu-gser-po or Tiserru (as ordinary people call this ruined mchod-rten), accompanied by Mr. Schmitt of the Moravian Mission, Lobzang, a Christian and Meteorological Observer at Leh, Pindi Lal, and the Khalasi. Our object was to study the inside of the structure. When we had climbed up to half its height, we found a hole in the surface, the opening of a narrow shaft. Lobzang went down first o f all. He came to a narrow room of triangular shape, which was perfectly empty. We then tried to dig a new hole in a different place, when suddenly a number of men, who had been working in the fields, rushed towards us terrified. They implored us not to open the Tiserru, as such a procedure would bring incalculable misfortune to the country. From their remonstrances we learned something about the history of the old monument. The story reminds us of European fairy tales, such as that of the devil being caught in a bottle. In King 'aBum-lde's times, there used to live a demon in a cavity of the rock Teu-g ser-po. This devil, who had fire proceeding from his mouth, roamed about the country and destroyed the king's palace and portions of the town of Leh. To exorcise him, the huge stipa was built above his abode. If we opened the stipa, the people feared that the evil spirit which had been kept under custody for 500 years, might once more attain liberty. We pointed to the old holes in the building, and observed that he might have escaped long ago. But that was of no avail. At the same time, we were told that the old stipa was not only a repository for devils, but for heavy gales also. When in the days of King 'aBum-lde, the country suffered severely from storms, several large clay pots were held against the wind with their mouths open. As soon as the wind subsided, their mouths were closed, and they were stored up in the stipa with the storms contained in them. People were afraid we might find and open this ancient pottery, and that the country would be plagued with heavy gales

again.

From the opposition which we met in this case from the peasants of Leh, it was plain to me that it is difficult to do archa ological work in an inhabited country. The chronicles of Ladakh have only a very short note on this mchod-rten. They simply state that it was built, because " some fatality " had occurred at Leh. I am still of opinion that the idea of a devil living in this place has something to do with the ancient graves described above. These graves are situated in proximity to, and some of them

possibly below the mchod-rten.

On the same day, I went higher up the Leh valley, following the desert road to the west of the cultivated area, accompanied by Pindi Lal and the Khalasi. Close to the village of dGonpa, we passed by the ruined site of an old town with mchod-rten of ancient type near it. There we found also a stone sculpture of some Bödhisattva, enshrined in a masonry wall, with a lhatho (altar of the pre-Buddhist religion), in front of it (Plate XXXIV, a). As usual, the altar was furnished with many ibex horns. This ruined town may be the original site of the present village of dGonpa.

Marching upwards in the side-valley to the left of the village of dGonpa, we came to the ruins of an ancient temple, which is generally known by the name of Gya-mthsa. I had visited it occasionally, ten or twelve years ago, when I was stationed M