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

XIII. The Genealogical Tree of the Chiefs of Bar-hbog, Lahul

When stationed as a missionary at Kye-lan in Lahul, in 1906, I was told that a certain family of zamindars at Bar-ḥbog was descended from an ancient line of chiefs, and that the chiefs of Bar-ḥbog were once the highest among the baronial houses of Lahul. To find out whether the family was still in possession of old documents or a chronicle, I sent my munshi, Bzod-pa-Bde-chen of Kye-lan, to Bar-ḥbog, to make inquiries. Bzod-pa was so fortunate as to discover a MS. containing the genealogical tree of the family and two votive documents. The latter record the acquisition of a Bkaḥ-ḥgyur and a Za-ma-tog by members of the family, and contain the names of two kings of Kuḷu. This is of great importance; for without this clue we should not be able to furnish the chiefs of Bar-ḥbog with rough dates.

The castle of Bar-ḥbog, which is still the seat of the family, is situated on a hill above Mkhar-daṅ, the ancient capital of Lahul, on the left bank of the Bhāgā river, opposite Kye-lan. The very site of the castle indicates that its residents may have really held authority over Lahul.

Neither the chiefs nor the castle of Bar-ḥbog are mentioned in the chronicles of Ladakh or Kuḷu; but they occur occasionally in historical documents from Lahul.

Although I did not succeed in seeing the original MS. of the pedigree, I am convinced that Bzod-pa's copy of it is quite trustworthy, as I know him to be a very reliable worker. With the exception of a short passage in Ṭākarī, the document is written in Tibetan Dbu-can character. But the language does not appear to be Tibetan throughout. As I find it impossible to translate the non-Tibetan passage, I shall simply transcribe it.¹ The few historical notes which Bzod-pa added to the original document will be reproduced and translated in brackets.

NOTES

The word ko-khri, pronounced kothrī, is the Hindi koṭhī, a 'government office'. In Lahul, as in Kuḷu, this word is generally used for the whole district which is governed by the office.² For notes on the first non-Tibetan lines see 'The Genealogical-tree of the Chiefs of Ko-loṅ'.

The word Byo, which is placed before the name of the first chief, probably stands for Jo, 'chief.' It is an orthographical mistake. Hardly any of the names in the list are written correctly. The following is an attempt of my own at restoring them to their correct forms:—Jo-Bkra-śis-rgya-mtsho, Nu-bkaḥ-bkra-śis, Pad-dkar-bkra-śis, Rgyal-mtshan, Chos-grub-rnam-rgyal, Jo-Rnam-rgyal, Tshul-khrims, Phun-tshogs, Drug(or Hbrug)-bde-legs, Tshaṅ(Tshe-dbaṅ)-brtan-ḥdzin, Tshe-dbaṅ)-nor-bu, Tshaṅ(Tshe-dbaṅ)-rnam-rgyal, Mansu, Ra-ta-na, Tshaṅ(Tshe-dbaṅ)-drug-brgya, Rnam-rgyal, Brtan-ḥdzin-chos-rgyal, Brtan-drin (Rta-mgrin†), Gces-pa, Bil-(Bil-ba)-chun, Bsod-nams-chos-ḥphel, Rnam-rgyal-tshe-riṅ, Phe-tse-No-no, Siṅ-ga-Rām.