国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

be the messenger of the king in the Saga. And indeed, Shargola is believed to be
the home of a legendary messenger par excellence. Here, the house of bLon-po
Rig-pa can is still shown to travellers. bLon-po Rig-pa-can is said to have acted
as the messenger of King Srong-btsan-sgam-po who sent him to China to fetch a
bride for the king. The tale of Rig-pa-can's journey to China is apparently indentical
with the Prime minister Gar's journey to the same country. I obtained a popular
Ladakhi version of the former story, which also contains the tale of the passage of an
ant through a spiral labyrinth, as told by Sarat Chandra Das,¹ but the other parts of the
Ladakhi tale differ from the Lhasa version. This tale of the minister's embassy is very
similar to such episodes of the Kesar Saga as "Kesar's journey to China." The tale of
the minister Rig-pa-can's embassy is full of nature-mythology, and may have only a
very slight historical foundation. The house in which the minister Rig-pa-can is
believed to have been born, is situated near the bridge of Shargola. It is very well
built and looks like a nobleman's house; but only a small portion of it has preserved its
original beauty. Here also, a Moslem family have taken up their abode and spoilt the
old architecture.

The ancient gdung-rten (stūpas) of Shargola are painted in red, blue and yellow.
They are adorned with stucco figures round the base—a feature which is quite unusual
in Ladakh. The figures are very time-worn, but seem to represent Garuḍas, or similar
fabulous creatures. They are, however, popularly known as Gyad-pa, "heroes," and as
the word Agu is also used to indicate the heroes of the Kesar Saga, there may be some
sort of connection between these figures and Agu Drumba, mentioned above.

The idea that the messenger par excellence has his home at Shargola, seems to have
been accepted also by Buddhism, when it entered the village. I found here a stone with
a rock carving representing Vajra-pāṇi (Phyag-rdor), the constant companion of Buddha
on Gandhāra sculptures. This carving is well drenched in oil or ghee, and includes an in-
scription running from top to bottom which gives the name of the donor, She-rab-zang-po.
It looks as if it dates from about the 15th century, to judge by the form of its characters.
Vajra-pāṇi is easily confused with Vajra-sattva; in fact, Jäschkee asserts that both are
generally taken for the same divinity, and thus we find an inscription Oṃ Badzrastea
on one of the ancient gdung-rten. This inscription is raised in stucco and appears to be
older than the Vajra-pāṇi inscription.

The convent of Shargola is a genuine cave monastery and is probably very old. Its
former name was apparently Ma-khang, "Mother house." This name is found in the
above-mentioned song of the gdung-rten. It may refer to Śrī-Devī (dPal-ldan-lha-mo)
or her pre-Buddhist equivalent to whom the monastery was evidently dedicated. As it
was recently renovated, no ancient wall-paintings or images were found in it; but the pre-
sent frescoes were possibly painted in imitation of more ancient ones. I noticed the two
following pictures: dPal-ldan-lha-mo (Śrī-Devī) riding on a male; and Chos-skyong
Satra-pa ("Satrapa, the protector of religion"). Can this be a reminiscence of the