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

was staying behind, and when I found him, I saw that his face had become black. He
appeared hardly able to support himself any longer. I found it easy to guess at his
thoughts which seemed to be as follows : "Well" thought he, "have I not a right to
be ill too ? Did I not walk up the high pass yesterday ? I cooked some food and got
no reward ; the Khalasi did nothing and got a red blanket." But part with the other
half of my blanket ? No, that I could not. Fortunately, I found two rupees in my
pocket which I handed over to him, and lo, within no time he recovered so much that
he was seen among the foremost yaks of our caravan.

We reached the desert place Umna on that day, and on the 9th August we marched
to Nemaringmo camp which was distinguished by the proximity of a very extensive
swamp, overgrown with a luxurious vegetation of alpine flowers, edelweiss, and red and
yellow pedicularis. Leaves of wild rhubarb were conspicuous on the margin of the
swamp. At noon of that day we stopped at a place called Raco lhamo, the 'Horn
goddess,' where we noticed again signs of the occasional presence of man in these wilds
in the shape of an altar of rude white stones covered with horns of sheep and goats.
When entering the large swampy plain to the south of Lake Thsomo Riri, we saw a
tower-like building in ruins which was explained to us as marking the frontier between
Spiti and Kashmir. As the road from this camp to the lake was easier than what
we had experienced during the previous days, it gave me time to review in my mind
the times of Atīśa, which it was the good fortune of our journey to throw light upon.
It is due in particular to the labours of Sarat Chandra Das, that we now know something
of this interesting period of Tibetan Buddhism, when Western Tibet, and in particular
the vassal kings of Guge, held up the torch of guidance for the whole of Tibet.¹

King Lha-bla-ma-Ye-shes-'od of Guge (1025 A.D.), who resided at mTho-lding (his
inscription at Poo will be remembered), was not satisfied with the Tibetan form of
Buddhism, as it prevailed in his dominions, and resolved to purify it by bringing it into
contact with Indian Buddhism. He gave a careful education to twenty-one Tibetan
boys, the name of one of whom was Rin-chen-bzang-po, and sent them to Kashmir and
other parts of India to receive instruction in Sanskrit and philosophy. Although
through their agency the king secured the services of thirteen Indian pandits, most of
the boys died from the unhealthy climate, and only two, one of whom was Rin-chen-
bzang-po (Ratna-bhadra), returned to Guge.

Then the king heard of the famous teacher Atīśa at the monastery of Vikramaśīla
in Magadha and sent an embassy to him with a large quantity of gold to invite him to
come to Guge. Atīśa gave the following answer to the king's messengers : "Then it
would appear that my going to Tibet were due to two causes : first, the desire
of amassing gold, and second, the wish of attaining sainthood ! " and so he remained in
Vikramaśīla.

King Ye-shes-'od interpreted Atīśa's words in a different way from what a Euro-
pean would have done. He understood that the great teacher had not yet been offered