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

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escaped renovation and reminded mo of similar pictures I had seen at Alchi. Here also were Iictures of monks with patchwork gowns of many colours.

(5) Tretapuri (Tírthapuri) .--This is a large stűpa which is enshrined in a ruined

house. The name of the building would point to its former occupation by a community of heretics (Skr. tirthika), as they were found in Tibet by Ati4a on the occasion of his advent into the country. Judging by the images contained in it at the present time, however, it is low as Lamaist as any other temple at Mang-rgyu. There were four stucco images of the following Lamaist deities : 'aJam-dbyangs, (1Vlanju-ghósha) painted yellow, in the eastern corner ; sPyan-ras-gzigs (A valökitésvara) painted white, in the southern corner ; and Phyag-rdor (`rajra-páni) painted blue, in the western. corner ; and further the reformer bTsong-kha-pa (Sumati-kirti), resplendent with red, orange, and yellow, in the northern corner.

At the time of its foundation, the _Mang-rgyu monastery may have equalled the Alchi monastery in splendour. Now-a-days it is far inferior to it.

On the 25th September, we marched to Khalatse, on the right bank of the Indus. Half way we passed by a gorge which forms the entrance to the valley of the village of

Tar. I should not have visited the latter, if rumours had not been current that a very ancient rock inscription had been discovered there by Mr. Chatterji and others. Just below the village of Tar, there is a rock, on which people believe they can see twenty-one figures of the goddess Tara (sGrol-ma) which have come into existence of themselves. There used to be a high flagstaff in front of this rock. These svayambhű figures of Tárá may account for the name of the village. It was probably called Tárá originally, the name having become abridged to Tar. Lower down the valley, we found very well moulded clay representations of Tárá in a mchod-rten. In the village we examined the " famous " inscription mentioned above. It contains only the name of King Thse-dpal-rnam-rgyal, the last independent ruler of Ladakh, and is very fragmentary.

We arrived at Khalatse just in time to prevent the boulders containing the oldest inscriptions of Ladakh from being broken. There are several rocks near Khalatse bridge, bearing ancient Kharóshthi inscriptions, and one with an ancient Bráhmi inscription. As a ne Vv bridge was under construction, many boulders, some with interesting rock carvings and inscriptions had been blasted ; and the boulder with the Bráhmi inscription had already been marked for blasting. I spoke to the Public Works

overseer in charge, as well as to the authorities at Khalatse, and entreated them to preserve these invaluable stones. I hope that this may not have been in vain. We took photos of the Bráhmi, the longer Kharöshthi,l and the old Gupta inscriptions. The latter is found in the close vicinity of the mGo-Chen mchod-rten. Some of the ancient rock carvings were also photographed, and impressions taken of the royal Tibetan and the Kharóshthi inscriptions. The mGo-chen mchod-rien belong to the

7 Our photograph of the longer Kharöshthi inscription was sent to Professor Rapson of Cambridge. He writes in his letter of the 23rd September 1910, as follows : " The title Maharajasa is quite clear. After this comes the name beginning with A and ending with the genitive termination sa. Four or five syllables intervene, but I am not quite certain about any of them. Above the King's name is a date which I read—with some doubt as to whether three strokes at the end are part of the date or not—as 100+20+20+20+20+4 [ +3 ); that is to say 184 or 187."