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

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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