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Antiquities of Indian Tibet : vol.2 |
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I. The Chronicles of Zaris-dkar
INTRODUCTION
In 1907, when stationed at Kyelang, Lahul, I made the acquaintance of a member
of a family of chiefs of Ste-sta (Ti-sta) in Zans-dkar, who passed through Lahul on his
journey to India. As the chiefs of Ste-sta claim to belong to the family of the former
kings (vassal-kings) of Zans-dkar, I asked their representative to tell me if they were in
possession of a chronicle. The kingdom of Zans-dkar came to an ignominious end in
the Dogra War, and at Dpah-gtum, the capital, no ancient documents seem to have
escaped the ravages of time. The chief of Ste-sta said that his family kept an old
chronicle at Ste-sta, which, as he believed, was somewhat similar to the La-dvags-
rgyal-rabs. The latter assertion does not hold true ; but my informant had probably
never taken the trouble to read the document.
When the Rev. G. Hettasch of Kyelang, in 1908, went on an itinerant tour to
Zans-dkar, I asked him to make inquiries about the chronicle at Ste-sta, and, if possible,
to have it copied. Mr. Hettasch did according to my wish, and had the chronicle
copied by my munshi, Bzod-pa Bde-chen of Kyelang. The accompanying text is based
on Bzod-pa's copy, which consists of two folio sheets of Tibetan paper.
As a glance at the copy shows, the original at Ste-sta must be in a perilous condition.
Whole passages are in quite the wrong place, and the orthography leaves very much
to be desired. In many parts the writing is almost illegible, and Bzod-pa had to re-write
many words and even sentences, which he had at first misunderstood. The text con-
tains a great number of local names, which in many cases it would have been impossible
for me to recognize as such, had not Bzod-pa thoughtfully marked a good number of
them by adding the word yul (` land,' ` town ') above or below them. In the same
manner he also marked the clan names, by adding the word rus (` bone,' ` clan ' ),
and some of the house-names, by adding the word grog.
As we learn from a note at the end of the MS., the Ste-sta chronicle is only an
extract from a larger book, which once existed (or still exists ?) at Phug-thal. The book
of Phug-thal is called Bo-yig (more correctly Hbo-yig), which means ` letter of
measure.' It is apparently a book containing a list of the numbers of bushels
which each peasant in the dependent villages had to send annually to the Phug-thal
monastery. For this reason the historical portions of the book centre about Phug-that.
They tell the story of the various grants that were made at various times to that
monastery.
As regards the history and archaeology of Zans-dkar very little has as yet been
done. I may mention an article of my own entitled ` Kleine archäologische Erträge
einer Missionsreise nach Zangskar in Westtibet ' (ZDMG., vol. lx, pp. 645-61, and
vol. lxi, pp. 645-7). Then a note on some ancient sculptures at 'A-tin in Zans-dkar
appeared in the Indian Antiquary, 1908, pp. 332-3 ; and, in addition, I am in possession
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