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

It gives the name of the Lhasa commissioner who for a time was regent of Ladakh
and who, as the chronicles prove, intended to make himself the independent ruler of the
country. His name is given here as rGyal-bai rgyal-thsab rJe-btsun Mi-pham-ngon.
But unfortunately, there was no time for copying these inscriptions in full, nor for
making impressions of them.

Behind the present village of rGya, on the left bank of the brook, there is a
plateau studded with a number of ancient, mostly ruined *mchod-rten*. They are still
held in veneration by the present inhabitants of rGya (Plate XXXI, a). This is
remarkable, because many of these *mchod-rten* which are called *Lha-bab-mchod-
rten*, undoubtedly go back to Mon times. And had not the people of the neigh-
bouring village told us plainly that they were indifferent to everything connected
with the Mons? The difference may be this, that whilst the Mons of Rum-rtse
did not succumb to Tibetan influences, the Mons of rGya did. We found several
types of cremation tablets with Indian inscriptions, containing the *Yê dharmâ* for-
mula. The characters employed are of c. 700—900 A.D. according to Dr. Vogel's
estimate. But there were also several tablets which showed the same formula in
Tibetan characters. The difference between the Tibetan and Indian characters
rests mainly in this, that in the Tibetan version the aspirated mediæ are indicated
by an ordinary media furnished with a subjoined *h*, whilst in the Indian version *gh*,
*dh*, and *bh* are expressed in simple characters. Besides, the Tibetan version has the
tripartite *y*, whilst the Indian version has a later form of the *y*. In two cases, there
were two tablets showing almost exactly the same design, but the characters used for
the inscription were Tibetan on one of them, and Indian on the other. Among the
*Lhâ-bab-mchod-rten*, there were also the ruins of an ancient monastery of unknown
origin, built of sun-dried bricks. I am almost convinced that the town of rGya is men-
tioned in the time of King Sadna legs, c. 850, in the chronicles of Ladakh. There it is
stated that King Sadna legs built the temple of sKar-chung-rdo-dbyings in the province
of rGya (*rGya-sde*). This could, of course, also be translated by "Indian Province" or
"Chinese Province." But it is very unlikely that a Tibetan king should have built
a monastery in a district, the hold on which was always uncertain. It is a pity that
the name of the ruined temple in the middle of the *Lha-bab-mchod-rten* has become
entirely lost.

On the 20th August, we left rGya for Mar-rtse-lang (map Marsahing), the
Marsilla of Moorcroft. Below rGya, we passed by a high *lhatho*, an altar of the
pre-Buddhist religion, with a few houses and fields in the vicinity. It is the *Latu*
of Moorcroft, and soon we reached the houses and fields of a small settlement, called
Rong.¹

We made a short halt at this place, because I wished to examine the site of some
ancient graves, called *Mon-gyi-rom-khang*, "graves of the Mons." The first who told
me of the existence of these graves, was our evangelist dGâ-Phun-thsogs of Kyelang,
who is a native of rGya. He had told me that he had been inside them when a shepherd