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

I. The Chronicles of Zans-dkar

INTRODUCTION

In 1907, when stationed at Kyelang, Lahul, I made the acquaintance of a member of a family of chiefs of Ste-sta (Ti-sta) in Zaṅs-dkar, who passed through Lahul on his journey to India. As the chiefs of Ste-sta claim to belong to the family of the former kings (vassal-kings) of Zaṅs-dkar, I asked their representative to tell me if they were in possession of a chronicle. The kingdom of Zaṅs-dkar came to an ignominious end in the Dogra War, and at Dpaḅ-gtum, the capital, no ancient documents seem to have escaped the ravages of time. The chief of Ste-sta said that his family kept an old chronicle at Ste-sta, which, as he believed, was somewhat similar to the La-dvags-rgyal-rabs. The latter assertion does not hold true ; but my informant had probably never taken the trouble to read the document.

When the Rev. G. Hettasch of Kyelang, in 1908, went on an itinerant tour to Zans-dkar, I asked him to make inquiries about the chronicle at Ste-sta, and, if possible, to have it copied. Mr. Hettasch did according to my wish, and had the chronicle copied by my munshi, Bzod-pa Bde-chen of Kyelang. The accompanying text is based on Bzod-pa's copy, which consists of two folio sheets of Tibetan paper.

As a glance at the copy shows, the original at Ste-sta must be in a perilous condition. Whole passages are in quite the wrong place, and the orthography leaves very much to be desired. In many parts the writing is almost illegible, and Bzod-pa had to re-write many words and even sentences, which he had at first misunderstood. The text contains a great number of local names, which in many cases it would have been impossible for me to recognize as such, had not Bzod-pa thoughtfully marked a good number of them by adding the word yul ('land,' 'town') above or below them. In the same manner he also marked the clan names, by adding the word rus ('bone,' 'clan'), and some of the house-names, by adding the word groṅ.

As we learn from a note at the end of the MS., the Ste-sta chronicle is only an extract from a larger book, which once existed (or still exists ?) at Phug-thal. The book of Phug-thal is called Bo-yig (more correctly Hbo-yig), which means 'letter of measure.' It is apparently a book containing a list of the numbers of bushels which each peasant in the dependent villages had to send annually to the Phug-thal monastery. For this reason the historical portions of the book centre about Phug-thal. They tell the story of the various grants that were made at various times to that monastery.

As regards the history and archæology of Zaṅs-dkar very little has as yet been done. I may mention an article of my own entitled 'Kleine archäologische Erträge einer Missionsreise nach Zangskar in Westtibet' (ZDMG., vol. lx, pp. 645–61, and vol. lxi, pp. 645–7). Then a note on some ancient sculptures at 'A-tiṅ in Zaṅs-dkar appeared in the Indian Antiquary, 1908, pp. 332–3 ; and, in addition, I am in possession