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160   ANTIQUITIES OF WESTERN TIBET

[ VoL. II

Gar-za brook. As an offering of the chief Khra-rig [were given] three houses with fields, together • with the lower monastery of Sa-ni. And as an offering of the powerful king of ` Upper Mar-yul ' (Ladakh) were given to Byan-sems the Ses-ron valley of Ru-sod (Rubshu) ; the region around the Ra-bo mchod-rten ; Nag-tsliur, Tshva-ka, the gorge of the Rkyan-chu brook, these three ; and the region up to Sel-ma-ni-can-hgo. As an offering of the king of Nun-ti (Kula) were given the region up to the Chos-sku-tse monastery ; 20-glin on the narrow road ; Gye-mur ; Hgregri-mos (?) ; and the upper and lower part of the Li-bde valley.

When Drun-pa-Sans-rgyas-blo-gros was in charge of the Dkar-ša monasteries, he committed some fault and was turned out by the people of Dkar-ša. Then Drun-ya(pa ?)-Tshan-stan-pa, king Tshe-rin-dpal-lde, and the minister Rgyal-mtshan showed some kindness to him and brought him to Pi-pi-tin. After he had remained [there] for eleven years, the Drun-pa died. Then, according to the late Drun-pa-Tshanbstan-pa's desire, seven fields, large and small, were given to Drun-pa-Tshan-rab-bstan for his sustenance. And, as an offering of king Be-to of Gyi-char, [the following estates] were given :—of Gyi-char Mkhar-snap-pa, of Bcah-ba the estate of Srod-ma and the estate of Blo-bzan-tshe-rin, these three.

This is a compilation (or extract) from the Bo-yig of Phug-thal.

NOTES

The chronicle was probably compiled a short time before the old line of vassal kings of Zans-dkar came to an end. In c. 16'20-40 A.D. a younger brother of the king of Leh, Bde-mchog-rnam-rgyal, was made vassal king of Zans-dkar. As, however, the use of rifles is mentioned during the reign of king Tshan-rgyal-po, who is the most prominent figure of the chronicle, this king cannot have lived many years before 1600 A.D.

The pedigree which can be constructed on the basis of the chronicle consists of four generations only. The first king is purely legendary. Two more royal names which occur at the end, viz. Tshe-riii-dpal-lde and Sag-lde, cannot be located with certainty, as the degree of relationship to the other members of the pedigree is not stated. But Tshan-rgyal-pa, as a contemporary of Mirzā Haidar, must have lived c. 1532 A.D.

The first part of the chronicle is of great interest, as it contains the popular traditions of the Zans-dkar people with regard to the origin and early times of their country and nation, as they were current in c. 1550 A.D. Ge-sar (or Ke-sar) is the supposed creator of Zans-dkar. The brief notes of the chronicle with regard to that event remind us of the story of the creation of the world, as we find it in the Kesar-saga (see my publication ` A Lower Ladakhi Version of the Kesar Saga ', Bibliotheca Indica, No. 1134, pp. 17, 18). In the Kesar-saga we read that Don-gsum-mi-la-snon-mo, Kesar's prototype, killed an ogre and formed the land of Glin (the earth) out of its various parts ; the castle of Glin out of its head, the Gro-ma plain out of its stomach, the rock Rgyabrten out of its kidneys, etc. In a similar way here Ge-sar breaks the earth to pieces, and the female ogre, the personification of the earth, falls on her back. Then he erects the most ancient monasteries of the country on the head, the stomach, and the feet of the ogre.

It is very interesting that the Ka-ni-ka and Sa-ni monasteries are mentioned first of all, as the oldest monasteries of Zans-dkar. Kanika is the Tibetan form of the name Kanishka, the great Kushana king of Kashmir and Northern India. This monastery was possibly erected during the reign of that king. This supposition is strengthened by another note in the chronicle, where it is stated that Zans-dkar was under Kashmir before it was seized by the Kham-pas (Tibetans).

In the following paragraph we hear of the conquest of Zans-dkar by a tribe of Kham-pas. The word Kham-pa originally stands for ' inhabitants of Khams ', an eastern province of Tibet. But in Ladakh it is used for any Tibetan who comes from a district east of the Manasarowar lake. I believe, therefore, that the conquest of