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

blue-green water, and dunes of yellow sand combine to make a picture like those sublime
quiet landscapes, which have become familiar through Sven Hedin's Tibetan sketches.
The first European who visited the lake was Trebeck in 1820. Cunningham gives
the legend of the lake which explains its unusual name. We heard the same legend at
bKor-rdzod. Although the tale is quite without a point, Cunningham says that it is as
good as many a Greek tale. The word Thsomo means 'lake,' and Riri is an ex-
clamation used by people when driving yaks. According to the tale, an old woman
came riding on a yak and made the animal wade into the water. She was shouting Riri
all the time, and was finally drowned together with her yak. It is strange that Trebeck
does not make any mention of a monastery on the lake, although he travelled along its
western shore. All the same, the convent must have been in existence in his time, for in
an inscription which I found on one of the many maṇi walls which line the lake shore,
the expression dGon-snying, ancient monastery, was used with reference to it. These
maṇi walls extend to about two miles in both directions from the monastery (Plate
XXIV, a). The votive tablets on these walls contained the names of several chiefs of the
Rubshu nomads who have their residence close to the monastery. Of royal Ladakhi
names, I found only two mentioned, those of the two last independent rulers of Ladakh.
But another tablet near the monastery contained a very beautiful hymn on Tibet, especially
its western parts. This hymn was more of a geographical than historical character.
We took an impression of this inscription, and I had to make an eye-copy in addition.
I visited the monastery next morning and was disappointed to hear that it was a
modern structure, between fifty and sixty years old.¹ The old monastery stood on the
brook, below the present site; but not a trace of it now remains. The few ancient
images and other articles of worship were taken up to the present building. Among
the antiquities pointed out to us, were several miniature mchod-rten of the usual type.
Of all the stucco figures, and of a fine wood-carving in sandal wood, which represented
Padma-sambhava with two of his fairy friends, it was asserted that fifty or sixty years ago
they had been brought up here from gSham, Lower Ladakh. I suspect that these Rubshu
people bought up the entire contents of a ruined monastery in Lower Ladakh. The prin-
cipal stucco figure represents Buddha with two disciples, and another Padma-sambhava.
The names of the other images, I did not try to ascertain, because the history of their
date and origin will always remain obscure. I may mention here, that outside, near the
site of the ancient monastery, I found a relievo representing Padma-sambhava, carved
on a beautiful slab of snow-white quartz. I was greatly tempted to carry it off, but it
would have been too heavy. One of the clay pots in the bKor-rdzod monastery reminded
me of the stone age of Europe. It had evidently been made by plastering the inside of
a basket with clay and then burning the basket. All the books at this monastery were
modern Tibetan prints.
The neck ornament of a man at bKor-rdzod who acted as Lambardār, attracted my
attention, because it was of cruciform shape, and could at first sight be taken for a
Christian ornament. He said, he had excavated it from a high hill in the neighbourhood.