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

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bKra-shis-rnam-rgyal. Here at Daru his name is found connected with a king Kun-dgarnam-rgyal. The question, therefore, naturally arises : Are bgra-shis-rnam-rgyal and Kun-dgá-rnam-rgyal the names of one and the same king or not ? Was bKra-shis kun-dgá-rnam-rgyal the full name of this king ? Up to the present, only two inscriptions of bKra-shis-rnam-rgyal have been found, one on the rNam-rgyal-rtse-rno, the other one at Alchi. Neither of them contains the name bKra-skis-kun-dgá-rnam-rgyc' l

as the name of a king ; both give bEra-shis-rnayn-rgyal. It is, therefore, possible that king Lha-then-Bha-gan, the founder of the rEam-rgyai dynasty of Western Tibet, did not only give names ending in rEam-rgyal to his sons, but took a new name ending in rnam-rgyal for himself, that name being Kun-dgá-rnam-rgyal. The minister Phyagrdor-jo would then appear to have served two kings, father and son, which is not at all uncommon. Similar cases are found in the history of the Tibetans as well as in that of other nations. If we say, therefore, that the Daru sculptures and inscriptions date roughly from the year 1500 A.D., we shall not be far wrong.

On the western end of the plain, called _La-dvags-gong-khai-thang, there is a rock

called bLa-ma-guru. It has an eroded hollow on one side which looks as if a man had left the mark of his head and shoulders in mud. This hollow is believed to have been formed through Padma-sambhava's sleeping on the rock on one of his journeys through Indian Tibet. The rock is worshipped by the people, who smear oil or butter on it. The Om mani palme kink formula has been carved twice upon it.

At sNyemo we photographed the ancient castle on the river, called Chung-rnkhar (Plate XXXV, a) ; and also the stone sculpture of Jo-mo-rdo-rje, the ancient abbess of the nunnery at sNyemo. These antiquities were discovered by me in 1906.'

On the 22nd September, we marched to Saspola, by way of Basgo and Likir. Before

reaching Basgo, a little north of the road from sNyemo, the ruins of an ancient temple can be seen (Plate XXXV, b). It is built of sun-dried bricks and is of the type or Rin-chen-bzang-po's temples. It particularly reminded me of the Tabo temple. The number of raised medallions on its walls is thirty-two as in Tabo ; ar.d there was probably another medallion above the door.2 I made a plan of this temple which, according to the best traditions, dates from the days of the great lama Rin-chen-bzang-po. Popular tradition connects it, without any reason, with an invasion by Turks or Mongols.

Not far from the ruined temple are two ancient stűpas of the " ladder " type, and

also the remains of a third stűpa of the same kind. In the latter we found cremation tablets with inscriptions containing the Yè dliarmá formula, in exactly the same type of ancient Sáradó as had come to light at rGyamthsa near Leh. The Basgo and the rGyamthsa monasteries are evidently of the same period.

The temple of Byams-pa (1Vlaitréya) at Basgo is apparently the only well preserved building in the place. In my article, " Archology in Western Tibet," I wrongly attributed it to King Seng-ge-rnam-rgyal. As it contains the inscribed portrait of Thsedbang-rnam-rgyal I and those of his two brothers, it was evidently erected by him,

' Cf. my article " Archeology in Western Tibet," Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXVI, pp. 88 ff.

2 The arrangement of the medallions is shown on Plate No. IV of my article Archæology in Western Tibet.