国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

INTRODUCTION   3

was gained by the Christian schoolmaster at Leh, Joseph Tshe-brtan, who found

the MS. in the possession of Tsandan-niunshi at Leh. Of this MS. Joseph

Tshe-brtan soon sent me a careful copy. Then I remembered having read in

Dr. K. Marx's introduction that in several MSS. of the Rgyal-rabs a chapter on

cosmology and cosmogony preceded the historical account of the chronicles. At the

same time people told me of Munshi Dpal-rgyas' most recent historical activity, viz. his composition of a chapter on the history of Ladakh after 1842 A.D. Joseph

Tshe-brtan provided me copies of all these productions, to which he added quite

a new chapter, viz. Munshi Dpal-rgyas' chronological and taxation tables.

When I heard from Dr. L. D. ,Barnett that the British Museum was in

possession of a MS. of the La-dvags-rgyal-rabs, I asked Dr. J. Ph. Vogel, then

officiating Director-General of Archology, India, to allow me to order a photographic

copy of the same, to which he kindly agreed.

In the present publication the Tibetan text of the following chapters appears

for the first time :—chapter ii, on cosmology ; chapter viii, on the kings from Bde-ldan-rnarn-rgyal down to the Dogra wars (c. 1625-1834 A.D.) ; chapter x, on

the history of Ladakh after the Dogra wars ; and chapter xi, containing chronological

and taxation tables. With regard to chapter ix, the history of the Dogra wars,

let me state that in the present publication the text of Ca MS. has been replaced

by that of Cc MS., because the latter MS. contains not only a fuller, but also

a more reliable account of those wars. Moreover, the text of the other chapters,

which is mainly reproduced from former publications by Schlagintweit and Marx,

has been carefully revised, and compared with that of the London MS. ; and thus

a number of doubtful readings have become clear.

As regards translations, the following chapters only contain entirely new

material :—chapter ii, on cosmology ; chapter x, on the history of Ladakh after the

Dogra wars ; and chapter xi, chronological and taxation tables. But here let me

state that my revision of the former translations by Schlagintweit and Marx has

in a great number of cases led to entirely new conceptions. And the present

revised translation yields a richer harvest of historical facts than could be gathered

from the former translations.

Let me now describe the five MSS. which have supplied the basis of the

present text. I have not seen the original of a single MS. ; but a comparison of

the different copies with one another has shown me their reliability. Of the London

MS. I had a photographic reproduction.

L Schlagintweit's MS. (S MS.). The original MS. was the property of the

ex-King of Ladakh, Hjigs-med-rnam-rgyal. This ex-king resided at Leh during Hermann v. Schlagintweit's visit to that town in 1856 A.D. At first he refused

to produce his MS. at all ; but, after valuable presents had been given to him,

it was the ex-king himself who insisted on a copy of the MS. being prepared

for Schlagintweit by three lamas. The text of this copy was appended by Emil

v. Schlagintweit to the publication of his German translation of the Rgyal-rabs

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