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

famous Satraps of Buddhist India? He is shown in the dress of an ancient Tibetan knight,
mounted on a horse or rkyang, with five arrows in his quiver. The lama said that Satrapa
was the brother of Agu Drumba who himself is represented by a stucco image.
The latter is depicted in the dress of a Ge-lug-pa lama the order to which the monastery
now belongs. On one of the walls I noticed also a modern inscription which contained
a Tibetan calendar. The people of Mulbe assert that the Shargola monastery was built
by two of their ancient chiefs, Thog-lde-Jo (Tog-lde-jo?) and Yang-lde-Jo, father and son.

On the way from Shargola to Kargil, and from Kargil to Dras, I was continually on
the look out for traces of Buddhism, which is said to have been the prevailing religion
in Purig three or four hundred years ago. But though there were many rock carvings
representing ibex, or hunting scenes, I could not, even after a long search, find a single
carving representing a stûpa or the Oṁ maṇi padme hûṁ formula. Yet, I feel sure that
there were many of them in the old Buddhist times. They were probably all destroyed,
when Kargil became Muhammadan. Many boulders there look, indeed, as if they had
been deprived of their outer coating.

People told me that there was a rock with a large Buddhist sculpture at dKar-rtse
in the Suru valley, and that it also contained a Tibetan inscription. I could not, however,
go there. Another sculpture from Shinggo is found pictured in Drew's book of travel.

The Muhammadanism of Purig (Kargil to Dras) is probably closely connected with
a certain type of Balti Muhammadanism, another type of which appears to be connected
with that of Kashmir, to judge from the style of its mosques. The Kashmir type is
found north of Skardo ; and what may be called the Purig type, south of Skardo, and in
Purig. As Mr. W. M. Conway has made a thorough study of this kind of architecture
we cannot do better than quote his description. He says¹: "We were now come
to a country in which the mosque type is different from that north of Skardo. The
Gol mosque may be taken as an example of the change. It is relatively lower and flatter
than the Shigar Nagyr mosque. Its walls are built of mud. Its roof is carried on long
beams transverse to the axis of the building, and each beam is supported on a row of
columns. There is no emphasized central square with four columns round it, and a lan-
tern above, as in the other type. Here the centre is occupied by a column more orna-
mental than the rest, and standing right between the door and the mihrâb. The other
columns are of all sorts, oblong and polygonal in section. Capital, column, and base
are carved from one log. There is a portico along the east wall. For external finish
there is a kind of double corbelled arrangement of beam ends and beams, where roof and
walls join. The carving about doors, capitals, and the like, is of a style that was new to
me. It affects foliation and flowers rather than geometrical designs. Outside the
mosque, on the east, is meydah, a collection of round walled latrines — numerous,
obvious and large."

On the 6th October, we marched from Kargil to Shimsha Kharbu. On a rock
between Kargil and Chanigund, in the Dard district, are several rock carvings which