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

Leh, under Ñi-ma-rnam-rgyal, 1715 A.D.; Moorcroft's visit to Leh, under Tshe-
dpal-rnam-rgyal, 1820 A.D.; Dogra wars, 1834–42 A.D. The intervening periods are
filled up by assigning about thirty years to each reign.

The most important foreign works which are of particular value for a history
of Western Tibet are (1) the Rājataraṅgiṇī (chronicles of Kashmir), by Kalhana,
for the Chinese and Kashmiri expeditions to Western Tibet in the eighth century;
(2) the Annals of the Chinese Thang dynasty, for the same period; (3) the
Rājataraṅgiṇī (chronicles of Kashmir), by Jona-rāja, for the career of Prince
Rin-chen in the beginning of the fourteenth century and the Kashmiri expeditions
to Ladakh in the fifteenth century; (4) the Ta'rikh-i-Rashīdī, for the Turkoman
expedition to Ladakh in the sixteenth century; (5) Roman Catholic accounts of
d'Andrada's mission to Tsaparang in Gu-ge in the seventeenth century; (6) Desideri's
account of his journey to Lhasa and Leh, 1715; (7) the account of the Mughal
historian, Mir-Izzet-Ullah, for details about the siege of Bab-sgo, c. 1650 A.D.;
(8) Bernier's travels (Kashmir), for the relations of the Mughal emperors to Western
Tibet in the seventeenth century; (9) Moorcroft's travels, for the times of the last
independent king of Ladakh; (10) Central Tibetan and Mongolian works are of
the greatest importance for the history of Western Tibet down to the tenth century.
After that time they contain only casual notes on Western Tibet, as, for instance,
on the tensus of Ladakh under Kublai-Khan.

Together with the chronicles of Ladakh I am publishing the chronicles and
genealogical trees of several West Tibetan vassal chiefs and three short accounts
of important events in Ladakhi history. They are found under 'Minor Chronicles'.
The chronicles relate to the following provinces: Zans-dkar, Bzan-la, Gu-ge, Bu-rig
(Cig-gtan, Sod, Mkhar-bu), Baltistan, Ko-loñ of Lahul, Ti-nan of Lahul, and
Bar-bog of Lahul. And the brief accounts tell the tale of the Dogra war (two
versions) and of the trade between Ladakh and Kulū and narrate the services of
several ministers and generals.

Besides the chronicles and genealogical trees, the following historical documents
are also of great importance:—(1) Inscriptions on stone, etc. They will be treated
in a special part. (2) Decrees on paper issued by certain kings. Up to the present
I have discovered the following:—two decrees by Ñi-ma-rnam-rgyal, one by Tshe-
dbaṅ-rnam-rgyal II, one by Tshe-dpal-rnam-rgyal, and one by Biddhi Singh of Kulū.
As regards Kulū kings, a great number of letters by them in Takri, addressed to
various chiefs of Lahul, have been collected by Mr. G. C. L. Howell, Assistant-
Commissioner of Kulū. But it would not be difficult to collect similar documents
in Ladakh. They are all of the greatest historical interest. (3) The Māhātmyas
of monasteries. I have succeeded in seeing the following:—the Chags-yig of the
Gyuñ-druñ (Lamayuru) monastery of Ladakh, and of the Gandhola and Trilokanātha
monasteries of Lahul. The Chags-yig of the Likir monastery is contained in an
inscription on a wall of the monastery. The Māhātmyas do not contain much
historical, but a great deal of legendary matter.