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

brother of Seng-ge-rnam-rgyal. The village of Sheh (Shel) on the right bank has also
many attractions. It was apparently the capital of Ladakh, before the old kings of Leh,
the professed descendants of the mythological king Kesar, were expelled. Here are the
most ancient royal rock inscriptions, but the best preserved of them will probably remain
inaccessible for some time for the natives of Sheh, being afraid of a devil who
has his abode exactly in front of the best of them, have erected a wall which conceals
the entire inscription.

We crossed the Indus at Choglamsa. The water was so high, that it flowed over
part of the bridge, and we had to ride through deep water for several hundreds of yards
on the bridge as well as on the left bank. At Choglamsa we met two ladies of the
Mission who had come to the bridge to welcome Miss Schurter, and on the road through
the sandy desert below Leh we were welcomed by several more members of the Moravian
Mission. We rode along the long royal mani walls south of Leh which had astonished
Moorcroft ninety years ago, and entered Leh with thankful hearts, for we were all much
in need of a good rest. Here in Leh we again received letters, the first since leaving
Poo four weeks before, and also a remittance. But a more powerful inducement to
continue our work was the approval of our past doings, which found expression in
Dr. Marshall's letters.

b. LEH.

The name of La-dvags is not mentioned in the Tibetan chronicles before the
reign of king Nyi-ma-mgon, c. 900 A.D., when it is stated that it was in the hands
of Gesar's descendants. The kings Lha-chen-she-srab and Khri-btsug-lde (c. 1350—1400
A.D.) seem to have resided chiefly at Sabu; and only the kings from 'aBum-lde onward,
(after 1400 A.D.) resided permanently at Leh. As has already been mentioned, the
original name of the town is not sLel, as it is now-a-days spelt, but sLes, which signifies
an encampment of nomads. These nomads were probably in the habit of visiting the
Leh valley at a time when it had begun to be irrigated by Dard colonizers. Thus, the
most ancient part of the ruins on the top of the rNam-rgyal-rtse-mo hill at Leh are
called 'aBrog-pai-mkhar (Dard castle), and of the supposed Dard graves at Leh, we shall
have occasion to speak again.

The first European to visit Leh was apparently the Jesuit Desideri who visited
Ladakh in 1715 during the reign of King Nyi-ma-rnam-rgyal whom he calls Nima
namgial. The Jesuit was kindly received by the king, but as the Muhammadan traders
plotted against him and undermined the king's confidence, he soon left the town and
travelled to Lhasa. I regret to say that I have not yet seen a satisfactory account of
this interesting and important journey.¹ A relic of Desideri's mission was discovered by
the next European visitor to Ladakh, Moorcroft. He found at Pashkyum an old Bible
on which he makes the following remarks:² "A Sayid, who seemed to act as his [the
Pushkyum Raja i.e. vassal chief's] ghostly advisor, produced a book which had descended