National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

The walls are completely covered with paintings. Some of the pictures are distinct-
ly Indian. They show ancient Indian costumes well : an Indian king with a three-
pointed crown like that worn by Bodhisattvas, and Indian men with turbans or felt
hats with brims. The hats as well as the turbans have ribbons tied below the chin.
There are also pictures of Indian ladies and elephant processions. These frescoes are
all of very excellent workmanship, and were probably executed by Indian Buddhist
monks who emigrated to Tibet in the 10th and 11th centuries, when Buddhism rapidly
declined in India. But there are also pictures of Tibetan origin. One of them had the
inscription Gu-gei-sde, 'province of Guge.' It seems to represent members of the Guge
government. In the case of most of the pictures the meaning has been lost. Others have
explanatory inscriptions in ancient Tibetan
characters and orthography, a few in modern
Tibetan. They are probably later additions.
Below the image of rNam-par-snang-mdzad,
we found a stone sculpture of Mañju-ghosha
which we photographed. (Fig. 3). There
were also two very beautiful ancient wood
carvings of standing Buddhas with attendants.
(Plate XVIII).
On both sides of rNam-par-snang-mdzad,
there is a pile of manuscripts about five feet
high. Each pile consists of many hundreds
of loose and disarranged leaves covered with
beautiful writing. The leaves seem to belong
to the twelve books of the Prajñā-pāramitā
in Tibetan translation. This work by Nāgār-
juna was translated by the famous lama, Rin-
chen-bzang-po, who has been mentioned several
times in the course of my account. It seems
to have been copied many times in the days of
Rin-chen-bzang-po, and copies were distri-
buted among all the monasteries founded by
him. So far I have found copies of this work
in the orthography of his own times in three
different places, but nowhere have I seen so
complete a copy as in Tabo. The value of
such a manuscript for critical purposes is enormous. Works like the Prajñā-pāramitā
have up to the present been known only from modern manuscripts or wood-prints. Here,
on the other hand, we obtain a text, as it was known in the translator's own days.
Of almost greater importance than the manuscripts, are the inscriptions which are
written on the wall with black ink. We found two long inscriptions behind the image