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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

were rather interesting ; I give copies. Another carving about a mile out, on the road to
Pangkong (lake) of a stag hunt, thus [drawing]. A large and rough outline of
Buddha on a rock seems to be fairly new—newer than some *chortens* on the same rock.
I found no kings' names or votive inscriptions on *maṇis* at Drangtse, and the clay tablets
were all of the *chorten* type, without letters, as far as I could see. Chushol yielded nothing
of antiquarian interest, and I found nothing more till I got to Nyoma on the Indus."

Let me now add a few notes on Dr. Shawe's most valuable observations. I may
remark that he was the first traveller who ever passed through this district with
his eyes open to objects of archæological value. In 1906, I had travelled with Dr. Shawe
as far as Chemre (*lCe-bde*) where we had investigated the monastery built by Seng-ge-
rnam-rgyal. We became thoroughly convinced that there had existed a monastery
previously on the same site. I went up the valley from Chemre to Sakti on a hurried visit,
and as Dr. Shawe points out, in his letter, visited only the latest of three ancient castles.
The first European traveller who visited the Chemre-Sakti valley, was Moorcroft in 1820.
He also noticed the "fort" of Sakti which was already in ruins in his time. What he
saw was also "the newest of the three old castles." Thus, the two older ones still remain
to be investigated. Moorcroft¹ says: "On the face of the mountain, forming part of the
eastern limit of the valley, stood the fort of Sakti, a pile of buildings surrounded by a
wall and towers, the whole built of granite blocks cemented with clay; the houses were
unroofed, but the walls were mostly standing. This fortress was evidently intended to
command the northern entrance of the valley, but it was taken and dismantled by the
Kalmaks nearly two centuries ago and has never been repaired."

The Kalmaks who dismantled this fortress, were evidently the Mongols and Lhasa
Tibetans under Thse-dbang of Galdan, who after having beaten the Ladakhis in the
battle of Zhamarting, besieged them in the fortress of Basgo. On their way to Basgo,
1646, they probably destroyed all the fortresses of eastern Ladakh. As we learn from
Moorcroft, the Chemre-Sakti valley was under the command of the famous Ladakhi minis-
ter Bang-kha who ruled over seventy villages. The family of these Bang-khas evidently
had the hereditary office of 'defender of the eastern gates of Ladakh.' Their principal
castle was the gSer-khri-mkhar of Igu, in the neighbouring valley, where there are many
ancient ruins, among them walls with frescoes in front of huge carvings of Bodhisattvas.
One of the great generals of bDe-ldanr nam-rgyal (c.1630 A.D.) was a Bang-kha-pa
from Igu. We also find a Bang-kha-pa in a high position of command during the
first part of the Dögra war, when he did not quite justify the confidence placed in him.

As regards the other places of archæological interest mentioned by Dr. Shawe,
they were not noticed by Trebeck on his way to the Pangkong lake. But Trebeck
gives an interesting description of a festival he witnessed at Drangtse. As regards
the inscription "mostly, but not entirely Tibetan," Dr. Shawe's copy of it was sent
to Dr. Vogel, who said that it probably dated from c. 700—900 A.D., judging by the form
of the characters used. It contained the Buddhist formula *Ye dharmā*, etc., which,