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

CH. VI]

THE CHRONICLES OF LADAKH : TRANSLATION   99

His son was Lha-chen-Khri-gtsug-lde (c. 1380-1400 A.D.). This king built [one row of] mchod-rtens [numbering] 108 at Slel (Sle, L MS. : Gles) and two [rows] of 108 at Sa-bu.

NOTES BY DR. K. MARX

108 (brgya-rtsa, abbreviated from brgya-rtsa-brgyad, as we find it given in a document excavated at Kyelang) is a sacred number. 108 is also the number of beads in the ordinary rosary of Lamaists, etc. The rows of mchod-rtens referred to here usually consist of mchod-rtens not higher than 2 or 3 feet, and resemble low walls, built at random anywhere across the desert. Slel, sometimes Sle, is the ordinary spelling of Leh, the capital of Ladakh.

NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR

As to the spelling of the name of the capital of Ladakh, I believe that Sle, Gle, Gles is the more correct ; a hies or lhas is an enclosure for cattle, and this is supposed to have been the beginning of the Tibetan, not Dard, town of Leh. The European spelling of Leh may be due to the German orthography of the Moravian missionaries. Leh is here mentioned for the first time. Apparently it was then made the capital. Previous to Leh, Seh (gel) seems to have been the capital of the country. Down to the present time it has been considered necessary that the heir apparent should be born in Seh. The rows of mchod-rtens which were built at Leh have not yet been discovered. Of those at Sa-bu there is still a fragment left, of about 6 yards, as Dr. Shawe told me. It looks as if the remainder had been carried away by a flood.

Towards the end of this reign the Tartar emperor Tìműr may have passed through part of the Western Tibetan kingdom on his way from Jammu to Samarkand. At that time the Christians and Buddhists were being persecuted in Central-Asia by the Muhammadans. The Nestorian inscriptions at Brain-rtse in Ladakh may be the work of fugitives during that period.

His two sons were Lha-chen-Grags-hbum-lde (c. 1400-40 A.D.) and Grags-pa-hbuni. Grags-hbum-lde held Slel (L MS. : Gle), etc. He erected, for the sake of his reputation with posterity, the Red Monastery (L MS. : many monasteries) and a Rgyal-baByams-pa (Buddha Maitreya), the lord, in size [such as he will be] in his 8th year. On his right and left were Hjam-dbyans (Manju-ghosha) and a Phyag-na-rdo-rje (Vajra-pani), each one story high. He caused to be painted as fresco pictures representations of the departed Buddhas, of the preserver of the universe, and of all his own private deities. He 'also built a triple temple (one surmounting the other) on the pattern of [the one at] Mtho-glifi. As a symbol of the word, he caused to be written a copy of the Gzuns-hbum-then-mo, Dkon-mchgg-brtsegs pa and the Lan-kav-gsegs pa and some others. As a symbol of the spirit, some fatality having occurred at Sle (Leh), he built over [closed] the Tehu(L MS. : Tihu)-gser-po (` Yellow Crag ') completely, outside in the shape of a mchod-rten, inside containing 108 temple shrines. This mchod-rten is called Tehu-bkra-sis-hod-hphro. Again, there being in the lower part of the Sle Valley a crag resembling an elephant, the king caused a brotherhood of four lainas to settle down below this rock. Then he said, ` If I die now, it matters not.' [At that time it happened that] the omniscient of the period of degeneration (the Kali age), the great Tsoii-kha-pa-Blo-bzan-grags-pa, having in his possession a Tshe-dpag-reed (Amitáyuh Sidra), about as long as a finger joint, made from the blood of his nose, entrusted the same to two ascetics, and said, ` Give it either to the one called Grags-pa, or to the one called Lde.' When the two arrived in Mar-yul, the one called Grags-pa was in Nub-ra. They went into his presence, but he did not