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

104   ANTIQUITIES OF INDIAN TIBET

[VoL. II

1

already been mentioned, it contains a collection of ancient armour. Sa-skya, Tibetan lamasery of ` red ' lamas. It gives its name to the Sa-skya-pa order. This order is represented in Ladakh by the Mah-spro lamasery (south of the Indus, near He-mi). Dge-ldan (Dgah-ldan), Lha-sa, and Bsam-yas are lamaseries

belonging to the yallow ' persuasion.

f   Regarding -btsur gral, ` tax order of children to be' made lamas.' Under the old régime every fancily

ht Qom^ -' Nor .k. , of more than one or two male children had to give up one—not the eldest, however—to be made lama. At present, of course, this tax is no longer compulsory, and hence the great falling off in the number of lamas. The lama child, Btsun-chum, stays at home until his 8th year, wearing the red garment and the red or yellow cap from the first. Then he goes to a lamasery, or is apprenticed to a lama, in order to receive his primary education, until he reaches his 14th or 15th year, being all this time called Btsun-chuii. Then he goes to Lha-sa, where his studies receive the finishing touch. After a sojourn there of one or two years, or longer—now under the name of Dge-tshul (upásaka)—on passing an examination, conducted by the head lama of the respective lamaseries, he is baptized, and thereby made a Dge-sloii (Bhikshu). Then he usually returns to his own country, in order to perform there the functions of a village priest, or to enter one of the lamaseries, where special duties await him. N.B.—There is a prevalent error regarding the dress of lamas, which is propagated even by Sir Monier Williams (Buddhism, ed. 2, pp. 268 and 278), viz. that the dress of lamas of the ` red ' persuasion is red, that of the ` yellow ' persuasion yellow. This is not so. The dress of both the ` red ' and ` yellow ' lamas is red (with the exception of one special order of lamas belonging to the Dge-ldan-pa, who, to my knowledge, exist only in Zaiis-dkar, whose dress also is yellow) ; but lamas of the ` red ' persuasion also wear red caps and red scarfs round their waist, whilst in the case of the ` yellow ' lamas these, and these only, are yellow. The Bsgrub-rgyud is a ` treatise on Esoteric Doctrine '. Gold-water, i.e. gold, finely divided by long trituration, suspended in water, extensively used for gold-washing the images. Regarding the sentence which occurs only in B MS., I am not quite confident as to the correctness of my translation ; but if mthah dmag means ` the hostile army ', and not the army of the country ` operating at the frontier ', I think the sentence could not be rendered differently.

NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR

Liiis-died. I visited the place and found the palace of the kings of Leh in ruins. I could not trace any more traditions regarding the blind king Lha-dbaii, who had once resided thére. Pu-rig, often spelt Bu-rig. Bu-rig is probably the original form. Pu-rig is the outcome of an attempt of many people at pronouncing the name Bu-rig after the fashion of Lha-sa. Thus, the personal name Bu-khrid was also converted to Pu-khrid. Many Ladakhis who have been to Lha-sa do their best to introduce the eastern pronunciation of Tibetan into Ladakh. Bu-rig means ` clever boys ', probably because the Dards, the ancient inhabitants of the country, were superior to the Ladakhis in general culture. The Dard language is still spoken between Kargil and the Zoji Pass. The district consisted of two principalities, one with the capital of Cig-tan, the other with Dkar-rtse as its capital.

An inscription mentioning Lha-dbaii-rnam-rgyal was found at Gtiii-mo-sgaii ; see my Collection of Historical Inscriptions, No. 38. An inscription and a portrait of Bkra-áis-rnam-rgyal exist in the Mgon-khan temple at Leh. I visited this temple, and found the figures of the four lords artistically carved in wood. The principal figure represented Rnam-thos-sras (Vaiáravana). Another inscription of Bkra-áis is found in the Gsum-rtsag temple at Alci, which he renovated. Ladakhi Songs, No. v, refers to this renovation. The pedestal of his flagstaff is still in existence at Phyi-dbaii. I am inclined to believe that he erected the flagstaff because he wished to appease his own conscience. He himself had committed a crimen hem inajestatis. By embracing the flagstaff himself he hoped to get rid of the crime. He was apparently a great politician. When the Turkomans invaded his country, he instigated them to fight all his disobedient chiefs one after another (cf. the Ta'rikh-i-Rashidi, p. 422) ; but possibly he was killed by the Turkomans in 1532 A.D. There is in the Ta'rikh-i-Rashidi (p. 422) a Balti or Nub-ra chief of those times called Bahram. He is probably the Bhag-ram-Mir of the Nub-ra inscription (No. 41 of my collection). The Turkomans call Bkraáis-rnam-rgyal Tashi-kun, which corresponds to Bkra-áis-mgon. It is remarkable that the Ta'rikh-i-Rashidi (pp. 423, 460), after having told of Tashi-kun's death, goes on to speak of him as if he had never died. I believe that the Turkomans, when once they had grasped the name of a Tibetan chief, did not let it go again, but called his successor by the same name. This would , also explain why they speak of Blo-gros-mchog-ldan as still living in 1532 A.D. It was his successor, whom they called by the same name.