- : ÍISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Jí fere is a unique feat in historiography of one of the most inhospitable and inaccessible regions of the East. The author reconstructs the history of Western Tibet and Ladakh region from primitive local records, edicts and folklore. Among the available sources, on the one hand there was purely subj ective account documented by the court poets or writers in praise of their masters at times utterly exaggerating their martial exploits, on the other hand, there were accounts recorded by the foreign, mostly Westerners, not much familiar with the language, custom, mythological references, and socio-cultural jargon. Yet the author strikes a credible and creditable balance. He has presented here a coherent, interesting and generally reliably history of the region amply substantiated by maps, photographs and illustrations. The wars, migrations, religious battles, conversions, ethnic changes and influences spread over a vast span of time (b.c. 200-1900 a.D.) are as far as. possible remarkably put into a historical sequence. PIL G RIM S B O O K S PVT. LTD Asms > MM MM Wľ H O O ■*TÍ rrä w H m Z w m H A íHistory of A History of Western Tibet One of the Unknown Empires WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS By Rev. A. H. Francké Moravian Missionary PILGRIMS BOOK PVT. LTD. DELHI - 1 í 0033 A HÍSTOHY OF WKS'S'bH.t TIBET Pilgrims LCTTíôíed Reprint - I9W riH,H[MS BOOK PVT. LTD. ■Jíťi, CxpK« TtT^cr, AzadgľjrCamTijrrci-aJ Cam [iks. Drill i-IIOM) EJwffc 71524» fa*. W-IJ'-HWeM E-r^iJľ piigTLmĚlndb.vsiil.iKt.iii OisirihtAtůit by ťU. [HUMS lIl>Uk HQLJSF P.O BWt JIÍÍ, Kafinundii. Mcpja! Tri.:- 124912, «5919 Fas: 97J-ä4Mä« F-mn I pt!|jnT.Ľ&wliTik.íQpi np- U&3Jtfl bt^lgjiikCíHliŕpiljjriítís 3wV Dinnibworjů" /WciÄA LEHITVG BOOK SHOf N««- P.OFflfí. MainEazar, I.KH-:i+li)l ISĽNU-762Í-IMÍV-J Pna Rí. i25.'- (PB) PtirlĽd u r . Jagŕ Kay Offsel Plinwis, ^an^loi.New Deäť.i. I'll.: 34718*0 L Author's Preface It is now a little otcr fifty years since_ General Sir Alexander Cunningham wrote the first outline of Wc'ufeíŤi 'J'ibcian roMory. 11 is feund in his íftétk, Sirsce ťtieai a great mass of material which is of historical interest has accmiulalcd, and thus the lime hits arrived tor the compilation of another popular history of dial country. 1 do not say. "for a scientific ftiStwy,." That may be written when ail trie historical records of whose existence we know have been ítíilťd. liiere are such äasiôtieal records, *hich it is extremely difficult for a European to get hold of, although there can be no doubt about their existence. Among Ihem are die chronicles of severaj lineš of vassal-princes. But, as the principal historical work, the lüihugs rgya!_ŕabs^ the'^Book of the King, of rädakET1 has l>een trarislälcd in a masterly manner by~Dr~Karl Mam. latcMonavian miss i unary at Leh, we may now venture on a popular history' of Western Tibet, without running the lisiít öf making Kress mistakes, SiOl, there can be no doubt ihat in another fifty years it will he possible (O *Tite a still more reliable book un the sarne ropie. ] am narticularly glad that tins history gives me an opporuir.i'.y to place before a larger ľ- AUTHOR'S. preface public tlie results of Dr Karl Man's excellent historical studies, ano thus to give expression to my gratitude to my beloved teacher. As sonic knowledge of Buddhism is nowadays considered lo form part of one's general education, I have not thought il necessary to explain every one of the many Buddhist mythological names occurring in the book. Only those which are of a purely local interest to Ladakh niivc been explained. My thanks arc flue to Dr F. B. Slawe, ůjf Leh, for kindly reading ihe first rffú|!i~čbpy of my MS., and for many Suggestions, additions, and corrections, ■with regard lo the subject-matter, to Major F, M. Peacock, the well-known military novelist, for many suggestions with regard tu improving [he style; and to the Rev. C. J. Kiesel, SecnetarY_of Moravian MissicnsPror kindly^menditfe To the final revision. ""The Tibetan names are speli in a way to make, them pronounceable for English readers, All the vuwels should be pronounced as in German or Italian A. H. FRANCK£ Emil SeliLagkľiweit published afMtinich í text Mid tránsialioif oť ä Tibetan history in threř chapters. of which the last relates to Ladakh; and an analogous work had already been mentioned by Sciuefncr, tod was known to exist in a Kalmuck version üntrJtu BodMrmw. Nearly all later researches bearing upon the history of Western Tibci—they will he found recorded in Mr Francke's bibliography (pp. 6, sqq.)— are due tu the- Moravian Mission. Dr Mark's ":Trinee Documents" include [he chapter mentioned above and two other originals which he PREFACE himself brought to light. Of the former he provided a revised rendering. He did not have to publish his work, which, however, fell into competent hands. Babu Sarat Chandra Das saw through the press the TibetärTportion of the first article, and the translation of the third was supplied by Mrs Theodora Francké, sister-in-law jo Dr Marx, and. wifiTcirour 'present-authořno Mrs Francké also we are indebted for ~thirpublication and translation of an account of the more recent history taken down from the lips of an aged native of Kalatse. r- Mr Francke's own pioneer researches into the \ dialects, customs, folk-lore, ethnology, and archaeology 1 of Western Tibet are becoming widely known. The Moravian Mission is to be congratulated upon finding so prolific and versatile a scholar to take up the work of Jäschke and Marx. To him we owe the fmsjjjrammäf of Ladakhi. He has published several interesting studies concerning the neighbouring Dards, and close to the Tibetan frontier he has revealed traces of ancient settlements of that race. We have already from him a language- map of the wide territory within his purview, and—not to mention minor poetry and proverbial lore—a local version ofMhe national _epos_ of Kesar, celebrále^throughout Central and Eastern Asia. Last, but in our present connection most important of all, we should mention two fasciculi of Tibetan inscriptions, discovered and copied by him. A future Corpus Inscriptionum Tibeticarutv will look back to this beginning; and in the meanwhile the PREFACE vii published inscriptions supply, by checking the statements of the monkish chroniclers, a valuable element in this History. The reader who is also a traveller will not fail to profit furthermore by the archaeological guidance which Mr Francké has thoughtfully supplied (pp. 9-11). • Can we spare a word to that remarkable example of journalistic mterpusf^J^J^zdwass-kyi-Az-bar, or LadaMTFlews, wmcnliachmorith conveys to those highaňlTremote valleys, in native script and language, the news of India and the world? TheStotyo]'Jesus Christ in Ladakhijs&cond edition^jgÖe) belongs to the more special work of the Mission. I do not think that the Moravian Society has reason to regret the labours of its representatives in the field of scholarship: that such labours are far from alien to its objects might be known from the practice of kindred Societies, which have contributed eminent names to the study of, one might almost say, every Indian language and literature. And the English reader may repose every confidence in this interestingly written History of Western Tibet, as the outcome, not only of scholarly enterprise and research, but also of familiarity with the country and the people. F^ W. THOMAS T«í Library, India QfFicE, Whitehall, S.W., August, 1907 Contents Page INTRODUCTION.............................................................. ' 1 GREEK: AND ROMAN AUTHORS ON THE NATIONS OF WESTERN TIBET............................................. I2 2. THE MISSION OF THE MONS TO WESTERN TIBET 3. THE MIGRATIONS OF THE DARDS........................ 21 A CHINESE RECORDS OF WESTERN TIBET, SAY 640- 760 A.D....................................................................... 39 5. THE TIME OF THE TIBETO-DARD KINGDOMS, ABOUT 500-1000 i.l............................................. 47 6 THE INAUGUBATION OF THE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY AND ITS FIRST KINGS, ABOUT 900- 1400............................................................................ 58 7 THF DAYS OF THE GREAT REFORMER TSONGKAPA-' AND THE FALL OF THE FIRST DYNASTY, ABOUT 1400-1580............................................--■ 7* 8. THE TIME OF THE BALT1 WARS. ABOUT 1560 1640....................................................................-"'" i9 9. THE GREAT MONGOL WAR, ABOUT 1646. 1647..................................................................... ,05 Page 10. THE QUARREL FOR THE SUCCESSION, ABOUT 1680-178O................................................................... 115 U.THE LAST TWO KINGS, ABOUT 1780-1834......... 126 12. THE FALL OF THE WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE, 1834-1840..................-................................................ 137 13- THE CONQUEST OF BALTISTAN, 1841 .................. 154 14. THE WAR AGAINST CENTRAL TIBET, 1S41- 1842............................................................................_ 161 15 MISSIONARY'S REVIEW............................................... 170 APPENDICES I. RINCHANA BHOTl'S CAREER.................................... 179 11. THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF LAHOUL.................... 181 List of Illustrations Facinľ Paoe Present-day Ladakhis..................................................Frrniiixpiľcľ A Nomad's Tent Rupchu............................................ ](, An OJd Gold Mine near Kalalse............................... ]0 Mon Musicians, Kaiatse.................-.............................. 19 Ancient Sculptures at Spadům above the deserted Monastery..............................................------------ 2] Dards of Da.......................................--------------............ 28 Playing a Game of Polo........................................-..... 36 Ancient Buddhist Sculptures from Baltistan...........,, 30 A Group of Baltis....................................-.................... 44 Lamayuru Monastery. The Ancient Stronghold c-f the Bon Religion....................................................... 4$ Stone images at Dras.................................................... 52 Ruins uf Custom House at Balukar.......................... 52 Sculptures at Sheh. Image of Maitreya, raised probably by King Nyimagon about 975 A.D.............. 02 Bragnag Castle at Kalatse.....................................-...... 65 Spitng Monastery, built by King Bum Ide............. 7g Namgyal Tscmo Hill at Leh, with the Village of Chubi, built by Trashi namgyal about 1520 A.D... 84 Statue of Stag tsang ras chen, in Hemis Monastery............................................................. 97 The Palace of Sengge namgyal in Leh from the West. The favourite residence of the later kings .. 99 The Mani Wall of King Deldan namgyal at Leh. 102 Village of Basgo, with Ruins..................................... 107 View of Sheh. On the Hill, Ruins of the Ancient Capital Ladakh. At foot of Hill, the Modem Castle of the Kings........................................... 119 New Palace of Stog, built by King Tsepal Dondnib namgyal about 1820 A.D.............................. 132 The Zogi Pass. The Boundary between Kashmir and Ladakh.......................................................... 134 Kalatse Bridge, where Sukamir's hand was fastened to a pole as a warning................................... 155 Ex-King Sodnam namgyal, grandson of Jigsmed namgyal.....................................................'■—..... 160 MAPS Dard Colonisation of Ladakh....................................... 29 The Empire of King Nyimagon with its Three . Divisions, about 975-1000 A.D.................... 63 The Empire of King Tsewang mam rgyal Í., and that of King Jamyang rnatn rgyal, about 1560 and 1600 A.D.......................,............................... 91 Map showing inroads of Mohammedanism ..........-.. 1900a. p., only comparatively little has become known up to ihe present, the reason being that systematic and thorough researches in that domain have not yet been made. Also, regarding the records on paper, although what is probably the most important work, the chronicles of the kings of Leh Cor Ladakhl. has been edited, much remains to be done. [ have heard of the existence of the following historical works which have never yet been examined by a European : the chronicles of the vassal-chiefs of 2 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET INTRODUCTION 3 Chjgtan;1 the chroniclesof the village of Sakti; and the "hjstory_oilmonasteries1', as it is found, I am told, in the Bidur (Vaidurya) gserpo. It is very probable IhaTthere are many möref historical works in existence in the country, the names of which will be discovered in course of time. Besides these books, some villages are in possession of shorter documents on paper, in particular edicts of several kings, to collect and edit which will be a necessary preliminary to a scientific study of our history. One of these documents, an edict by King Nyima namgyal, will be found translatecTTrT^hese pages. 'Let us-now exarnmeTie general character of Ladakh historiography, especially the chronicles of Ladakh on which the following history is cheifly based. The chronicles, so far as they are made use of here, cover_ the time from 900-1842 a.d. But as the histonography did not stop with the loss of independence of the kingdom, but has been continued down to the present, the Ladakhi chronicles comprise a full millennium by this time. The character of the work is not the same during the different periods it describes. Its most ancient part can hardly be called a history; nor was it apparently meant to be such. It was begun as a pedigree of the kings of Leh, whose chief intention it was to prove their descent from the famous line of the ancient kings of Lhasa. 1 Tlie present ex-chief of Chigtan telis me, however, that the only existing MS. of this historical work was lost during his lifetime. Thus the first portion of the work, covering roughly the period of 900-1400 a,i>., does not contain much besides mere names. About the year 1400 the account begins to become fuller. This may be due to the fact that thesěcond dynasty branched off at about that time, and this new line of kings may have had a stronger instinct for history. At any rate, the accounts grow in fulness after 1400 a.d. Still, they leave much to be desired from a European point of view. The writers_ were Lamas, and to them the greatest- events during the reign of a king were his presents to Lamas and monasteries', or his building of chortens and mani wails. Much ink has been expended on these events, which are of very' little-interest to the average European. On the other hand, the campaigns of the kings are treated with extraordinary brevity, and of their economical work we hear nothing at all. Only in the case of the last few kings are we able to form an idea of their characters, and of tactics employed during the campaigns we hear nothing. The historian is quite satisfied with telling us the final result of the campaign. Thus we see that all those points which go to make a history of a country serviceable are missing in these Western Tibetan records; and yet, the naive tone of the historians has often a charm of its own. An important question in this : Do the Ladakhi historians tell the truth, or is their history entirely or partially fabricated matter? The best test of the 4 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET veracity of an historical account is its comparison with other entirely independent documents. Only in a very few cases are we able to compare a Western Tibetan account of an event with that of a foreign country- Of greater importance in_ that respect are the many är^npüiins_.Qn rock and stone which are scattered aÜ over the country. I have made"! special study of these records, and have come to the following conclusion. From the inscriptions it becomes evident f'that at any rate the kings of the..Namgyal dynasty i are historical realities, and their order of succession is the same on the records on stone as in the j chronicles. Records containing the names of all of them have been found, fmmJJawsrigj)amsyz\ down to Tsepal dorje..namgyal. As far as contemporary history of other countries can .be adduced by way of comparison, the chronicles dp not contain anything that conflicts with them. The test of the veracity of the account of the first dynasty is of a more insufficient nature. Records on stoi^j^fating. to the time from 900-1400, are Täreŕ than those of later tiiüesTänfTseveral ot them do not contain the proper name of the sovereign. This much has so far come to light. King Bum Lde's name Í5_found_onJhe rock at Mulbe which contains an edict by him. An 'TrocngtToňju^jCajatse, which tells of the construction of a bridge across the Indus, can with great certainty be attributed to King Lhachen_ naglug. although it only speaks of "the greasing?' for the date given on the boulder and the date given in the chronicles INTRODUCTION 5 for the founding of Kalatse coincide. Again, on a rock near Dam, weread the nameofa king Lhachen hm _ga_namgyat which canno^j3e^JbjjiuLJn_the chronicles as we have them now. However, it is quite" possible that only part of his name, Lha . . ■ ■ gyal, has been preserved to us in the chronicles. Thus the testimony of the inscriptions which have become known up to the present does not go very far with regard to the accuracy of the first part of the chronicles. Here folklore comes to our aid. It has presenTd_the_narnes of two more kings of the first dynasty in two songs, the drift of which is not in opposition to what the chronicles say about them; these are the kings Nyima gon and JopaS. And the name of yet another king, or, at least, prince, of Western Tibet, Prince Rinchen, is attested by the chronicles of Kashmir Certainly, "we should be glad to be able to adduce more arguments to prove the accuracy of the first half of our chronicles. However, what can be adduced' is in accordance with its statements, even with regard to chronology, and I think we have a right to accept also the first part of the history as on the whole true and reliable. In no case do the Western Tibetan chronicles enable us to fix the time of the reign of a king exactly. As, however, several kings were contemporaries of other historical personalities, whose dates can be fixed, we are in a position to furnish all the f.adakhi kings with approximate dates. With regard lo the second dynasty, eventual mistakes can 6 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET hardly amount to more than a decade. From the outset it must be understood that the reign of a certain king may have been longer or shorter than the period given in this history, "but it is probable that some years of his actual reign coincide with some of the years given here. The fixed dates on which hinges the whole chronology given in this book are the following : LanKdarma^_90Jb921 a.D.; Tsongkapa, the contemporaryoTTSrig BumLAs^3T&A44Í~(or 1355-1418) ZrľTtne BalfTwar^under Jamyang Namgyal, 1580-1600 a.D., according to Currningfram, probably from Mohammedan sources;~theslege of Basgo, 1646-47 A.n., under Delegs Namgyal; and the_Dogra wars, 1834^É42T^D7Tlíehírígěšrperiod without a fixed dätelFgOOjo about 1400 a.d. It is filled up by assTgrrrmfTcTeach of"the-kings "twenty-five years. According to European conceptions, the average duration of a generation is thirty years. But as the 1 Tibetans marry rather early, the duration of a j generation may be shorter here. The most important foreign documents which are of particular value for a history of Western Tibet * are :.(1) The RäjataranginiJchronicles_of_Kashmir) by Kalhána^ for_the Čh]nese^andKashnhn expeditions to "Western TibetTTíTuiě^beginning of the eighth p^ttuřy; (2) flie atfflaS of the Chinese Tang dynasty, for the same period; ('3T'the_Rljatarang!ni[(chronicles of KasTimífyiiy Jonaraja, for the career of Rinchana Bhoti, in ;f!ie""rjegirrjTing of the fourteenth century; (4) the account of the Mogul historian, _Mir_Izzet INTRODUCTION 7 Ullah, for details^ about the siegc__of_Basgo, 1646-1647; (5) the accounfoTtiie DognQröi%_ 1834^1839. by Basti Ram, a Ďogra officer, communicated by Qmmngharn; (6) Central Tibetan historical works in several instances. íffi^rte tollowing, the literature which has been made use of for the individual chapters is enumerated: Chapter I. Ladak, by General Sir Alexander Cuimjnghain. Memoir on the Ancient Geography of Kashmir, by MA, Stem, Ph.D., etc. Chapter II. Kleine archäologische Erträge einer Missionsreise nach Zangskar, von A.H. Francké, " 2.D.M.G., 1906. Chapter III. "The Eighteen Songs of the Bonona Festival," by A.H. Francké, Indian Antiquar)', 1905. >e name of one tree i.s the "White Sandal Tree," >e name of anntha is the "Blue Sandal lice," ie name of t]1Ľ 0I1L. remaining tree is the "Red Sandal Tree." ■' «1-, grew on Ihe three trees'' 32 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Three birds pew un the three trees. What is the name of one bird? The name of one bird is "Wild Eagle." What is the name of another bird? The name of another bird is "BarndoOT Hen." What is the name of the one remaining bird? The name of the one remaining bird is "Blackbird." The three mountains and trees are possibly thought to exist one on top of the other, and thus to constitute the three worlds in correspondence to the land of the gods, of men, and of the water-spirits, of the Tibetan pre-Buddhist religion. Also the system of colours—white for heaven, red for earth, and blue for the lower world—is the same as that of the Tibetans. But in other respects the Dard system is different from the Tibetan system. Thus, according to the Tibetans, the earth is formed out of the body of a giant, whilst here it grows out of the water. The Dards were great carvers on the rocks, and some of the drawings of animals are quite works of art {see Plates). But the drawings which are of the greatest interest to us are those which show the Dards in their original costumes. Such carvings 1 have discovered at Hunupata and at Kalatse. On the rocks of Hunupata the Dard women are represented as wearing long ungirded gowns and very high pointed caps, a costume which agrees exactly with the one still worn by the Dard women of Dras. The costume of the Dard men, represented on the same rock, has entirely disappeared, the reason being that at the time 34 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET of the last Ladakhi kings certain types of dress were ordered to be worn by the whole male population. On a rock near Kaiatse, a Dard woman carrying a basket on her back is represented. Her headdress is considered by the present people of Kaiatse to be identical with the headdress of the present women of Da, looking at it from the front. She wears her gown rucked up very high, as the women of Da do when working. On another rock at the same place is a picture of a man hunting antelopes. His headdress looks like a flat hat furnished witli a tie for a tail. On other rocks near Kaiatse men with something like flat hats on their heads can be seen. From these carvings we may infer that the ancestors of the Dards at Hunupata belong to the same tribe as the Dards of Dras, and those of Kaiatse to the Dards of Da. In the Tribes of Hindo Kusk, with regard to the Dards of Da the supposition is expressed that this tribe emigrated from Gilgit during the seventeenth century, it is of course possible that single families have emigrated as lately as that time. But the emigration of the tribe as a whole must have taken place at a much earlier dale. The chief reasons for my belief are again of a philological nature, if the emigration had taken place during the seventeenth century, it could hardly be explained why the dialect THE MIGRATIONS OF THE DARDS 35 of this particuiar tribe is so much at variance with the present Dard language at Gilgit; whilst the Dras dialect is still practically the same as the Gilgit dialect. The Dards of Da must have been without connection with the Dards of Gilgit for a very long time back, whilst the language areas of Dras and of Gilgit never seem to have been separated by speakers of other languages. But the Dards of Da themselves may have given m • grei > ya" b°ys- clap your hands, to creel us' «"rah for |0ve: Wet) dn]lt% haMo, Tat Amhir Pass it makes "tarag"! hct,j arT°"" the" th. oil boy, clever al climbing; °h boy, who an clever at imitating the aniclope's cry: 3 S A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Then, oh boy, who art clever at getting out of sight, There the ibex can be seen, the ibex can be seen in a herd! Now lake the arrow, oh boy; Now take the bow, oh boy; Then take the arrow-shafts and heads, Oh boy that art clever at driving them together; Oh boy that art clever at driving them to heaps; Thou that art clever a! singling out the best; Thou that art clever at shooting them! Offerings of flour, butter, milk, and water, Must now be brought! Honour to thee, oh God! Now cut the flesh with a sharp knife; Roasted meat must be offered! Cut it to pieces! Give a mouthful to each of one hundred boys! They will carry the meat in their pockets of leather; They will give some to father and mother, oh boy! They will make presents of it to one hundred girls, oh boy' Now we have come to happiness and abundance, oh boy! IV ANCIENT BUDDHIST SCULPTURES FROM BALTIST AH. PhUu If y Fane ŕL Živnom CHINESE RECORDS OF WESTERN TIBET, SAY 640-760 a.D. During the seventh and eighth centuries several Chinese Buddhists made pilgrimages to the famous Buddhist shrines of North India. The Chinese are noted for their historical and geographical acumen, a faculty which the Indians do not possess. Thus the diaries kept by the Chinese pilgrims on their Indian tours are of the highest value for the study of ancient Indian geography and archeology. Unfortunately, none of these pilgrims apparently passed through Western Tibet on their way from China to India, and thus we have to be satisfied w'Öi a few references to our territories which were made by them when they arrived in the neighbourhood of Western Tibet. It was believed for some time that one of the fliest of them, Fa Hian, say 400 a,p., had passed ough our country, because the description he gives 'he kingdom of Kie cha in his diary might actually Pass for a description of Ladakh. Therefore, General 40 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Sir Alexander Cunningham accepted Kie cha as the Chinese rendering of some ancient name of Ladakh: and Legge identified Kie cha with Shardo in Baltistan. Modern scholars, in particular Dr. M.A. Stein, have proved, however, that Kie cha stands for Kashgar, in Turkestan. Mitten Tsang went on his pilgrimage about 640 a.D. He spent two years in Kashmir, and there seems to have heard people occasionally mention the neighbouring districts of Western Tibet. Thus, he gives a short description of the road to Baltistan, which he calls Po-lu-lo (the Chinese rendering of the ancient name dolor of that country). He says : "Since the erection of this statue (of Maitreya in the streamlet Tha-Mo, the modern Dare], near a great monastery) the law has spread considerably to the east. To the east of this point, traversing the hills and the valleys, ascending the Sin-tap (Indus), crossing flying bridges, logs of timber, precipices, and marshes, and proceeding in all 500 li. you come to the country of Po-lu-lo." This description shows that in those days travelling in the Western Himalayas was not particularly pleasant, and difficulties and obstacles only encountered now on branch roads were then the ordinary features of the main road. There must have been some reason why the pilgrim spent such a comparatively long time in Kashmir. Kia-shi-mi-lo, as he calls it, and Dr. Stein has the following note on the point : "With all due respect CHINESE RECORDS 41 for the spiritual fervour of the pilgrim and the excellence of his Kashmirian preceptors, it is difficult to suppress the surmise that the material attractions of the valley had something to do with his long stay. The cool air of Kashmir, the northern aspect of its scenery and products, have at all times exercised their powerful charm over those visitors who, themselves born in colder climates, have come to the valley from the heat and dust of the Indian plains." With regard to the situation of Po-lu-lo (Baltistan), Hiuen Tsang makes the remark that it is found south of Pho-mi-lo, the- Pamir. General Cunningham also believed that Hiuen Tsang was speaking of Western Tibet under the name of Mo-lo-pho, which name corresponds to the ordinary /lame Mar yul of the Ladakhi kingdom (Marpa = a man of Mar yul). He based his opinion on Hiuen Tsang 's remark that Mo-lo-pho was situated on the other side of the mountains when travelling from Kiu-lu-to (Kulu), and on the fact that San-pho-ho is given as another name of Mo-lo-pho; and the word San-pho-ho reminded Cunningham of the Tibetan name of the Indus (tsangpo = river). But since his days Mo-lo-pho has been looked for in other districts, and one of the most recent attempts at identifying rt is that with Malva, in India, by Vincent Smith. As this is evidently a failure, the question of the situation of Mo-lo-pho is still open. Further information respecting Western Tibet, from 42 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Chinese sources, is contained in the annals of the Tang dynasty. Those were the days when the Chinese pushed on towards the West with a great amount of energy. During the time of the Chinese progress in the far West, Turkestan, Western Tibet, and Kashmir became part of the celestial empire. These conquests took place during the first part of the eighth century. From the Chinese annals we learn that "the first embassy from Kashmir arrived at the Imperial Court in or shortly after a.d. 713. In the year 720 Tchen-tho-lo-pi-li, ruier of Kashmir, the Chandrápida of the Kashmir chronicles, was accorded by imperial decree the title of king."1 It is of some interest to notice that the Kashmir book of chronicles, the famous Rajatarangini, does not make the least mention of the subjugation of Kashmir by China, nor does it refer to the annual tribute that had to be sent to China. The Kashmir poiicy of those days seems to have been one of yielding to the strong and bullying the weak. It looks as if the Kashmir troops had not offered much resistance to the Chinese, and as if the Kashmir king had early sought the friendship of the Chinese. He was apparently quite satisfied with his recognition as a vassal king. It was differenl with Western Tibet. Although the land was split up into a great number of petty principalities, as will be shown more fully in the next chapter, the Tibetans ' Quoted from Dr. MA Stein's Ancient Geography of Kashmir. CHINESE RECORDS 43 were ready to fight; and the state which offered the most serious obstacle to the progress of the Chinese was Baltistan. Several expeditions became necessary against Po-liu, as Baltistan was then called, and the first of them took place some time between 736 and 747. With a sufficient army at one's disposal, it could not have been very difficult to gain a victory over one or other of the numerous little kingdoms between Leh and Kashmir which were continually at war with each other; and this fact was recognised by the next Kashmir king, Lalitäditya, or Muktäpída, the Mou-to-pi of the Chinese annals. He boasted of his victories over the Tibetans, and, although his expeditions against them were mere raids for the sake of plunder, he pretended he had been engaged in serious operations. He sent an envoy called Ou-li-to to the Chinese court. This man was to report the victories of his master over the Tibetans, and at the same time to solicit the establishment of a camp of Chinese troops by the banks of the lake Mo-ho Wahápadma, or Volur lake). The Kashmir king offered to provide all necessary supplies for an auxiliary force of 200,000 men. But the "Divine ^*an found it more convenient to content himself ™ issuing decrees for the sumptuous entertainment the ambassador and for the recognition of Muktäpída under the title of king. "Since that time relations of Kashmir with the celestial empire 44 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET and the payment of tribute from the former is said to have continued to this day."1 Of particular interest to us is that the Chinese annals speak of "Great and Little Polio."; from this we infer that the names of "Great and Little Tibet" were known in those ancient days, Baltistan in particular being called "Little Tibet." This name is found often in the works of the later Kashmir historians. The political relations between China and the northern kingdoms of India seem to have ceased soor after the time of Ou-khong, the Chinese pilgrim, of whom we shall now speak. This was probably due to the Chinese power under the later Tang gradually losing ground in Central Asia before the Uigurs and Tibetans. Ou-khong reached Kashmir in 759 a.D., and spent a considerable time in the country. His remarks concerning two of the three roads leading into Kashmir are of some interest in relation to Western Tibet. Dr. Stein gives bis information in the following words : "In the east a road leads into Thou-fan, or Tibet, in the north there is a road which reaches into Po-liu, or Baltistan; the road which starts from the 'western gate' goes to Khien-tho-lo, or GandMra. We have here a clear enough description of the great routes through the mountains which since ancient times have formed the main lines of communication between the valley and the outer world. The road 1 Quoted from Dr M. A. Stein's Ancient Geography "f Kashmir CHINESE RECORDS 45 to Thou-fan corresponds undoubtedly to the present route over the Zoji-la to Ladakh and hence to Tibet. The road to Poliu is represented by the present 'Gilgit Road,' leading into the upper Kishangangä valley and thence to Škardo on the Indus. The third route is by the Baramulla gorge." The Chinese pilgrims after Ou-khong are of little importance and need not be mentioned. From the Chinese sources we hear of the first great war which raged in Western Tibet, and although the information is both vague and scanty, we can well imagine that the country was shaken to its very foundations by this continual warfare. It will be fitting here to cite an ancient "call to arms" as we find it in the Kesar epic, which was probably composed after the model of a real "call to arms" of bygone days. The women are also called to battle, and Tibetan folklore speaks of several women who were able to fight. Thou host of the heavens, come to the fight, And Wingpo Gyabzliin be at thy head! rl>™ host oľ the earth, tome to the Tight, And Mother Skyabdun be at thy head! •hwi host of the waters, come to the fight, ™ Water-king Ljogpo be at thy head! '■'■ 8te head of the heroes of Ling, Palle must stride; ä fie head of the women of Ling, Astag must ride; -" head of the Lamas of Ling, Tsegu must ride; the head of the Mons of Ling, Penag must stride1 ™ head of the smiths of Ling. Karog shall ride; ý «K head of the Shaias of Ling, Kangrings shall stride! DOys who know how to use the sling, go to the war; 46 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET You girls who know how to use the spindle, go to the war! Whoever can provide for himself, let him do so; Whoever cannot, let him be provided for at the castle of Ling! Whoever has 3 horse of his own, let him bring it; Whoever has none, let him get one at she castle of Ling! March off then towards the land of Hot, And the king shall march in front of you all! THE TIME OF THE TIBF.TO-DARD KINGDOMS, ABOUT 500-1000 A.D. We now meet with the first Tibetan historical records. They are of two kinds : there are records on rocks and records- on paper. With regard to the political state of the country about 950 a.D., the chronicles of Ladakh make the following remarks ; "At the time Upper Ladakh was held by the descendants of Gesar (Kesar), whilst Lower Ladakh was split up into various independent principalities." As we have shown in the previous chapters, the '""gable valleys of Western Tibet had been brought under cultivation by the Aryan tribes of the Mons '•Md Dards, and the latter especially exhibited an straordmary skill in the construction of watercourses «ong almost inaccessible cliffs. The products of the ■e'ds were as welcome to the Tibetan nomads as Were tne produce of the flocks to the Dard peasants, the lively barter which took place between the 0 tribes apparently led to many matrimonial gains" as well, and so a race grew up which 48 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET combined the agriculturalist and the nomad. What is beautiful, to our taste, in the features of the present West Tibetans is due to their half-Dard origin; and what is not, to their half-Tibetan parentage. The growth of villages in many parts of the country led to the formation of chieftainships, or, in other words, to the state of things we find in 950 a.d. From local tradition and inscription it is possible to gather some scanty information about the various states which were in existence before the time of the Central Tibetan dynasty. At Leh there reigned a dynasty of kings who derived their origin from the mythical king Kesar; at Saspola people tell of a lang Bändel, the constructor of the ancient fori ' Alchi kargog. At Kalatse there was a dynasty of Dard kings whose fort was built on the bank of the Indus, and whose last members wstc called Shirima, Gya shin, and (probably) Tri od, according to inscriptions. It apparently came to an end between 1150-1200 a.d. At Lamaytiru the paramount power seems to have been a monastery. The villages of Da and Garkunu were ruled by magspons. or "dukes," just as the Baltis were; but these villages have always been independent of Baltistan, At Karise. near Kargil, reigned a dynasty of chiefs who called themselves Tri rgyal, according to an inscription; these altered their title into Tri Sultan, after they became Mussulmans. This dynasty lasted down to the time of the Dogra war, but is extinct now; tl,e only dynasty of petty chiefs whose representatives THE TIBETO-DARD KINGDOMS 49 are still alive is the line of the Jobo rjes of Chigtari, who altered their title to Purift Sultan, ater they became Mohammedans. This dynasty possesses a written chronicle which goes back to the days when its ancestors had not yet left Gilgit It is a genuine Dard dynasty. Local tradition at Kalatse tells of the general state of tilings in those days. There was continual warfare between the many petty kings; particularly difficult were the harvest seasons. When the fruit of the field was being cut, half of the men of the village had to be on guard with bow and arrow, whilst the other half reaped. Suddenly the men of the village of Tetgmachig 'would turn up in full armour and try to carry off the whole harvest, if possible. A few days after the young men of Kalatse would start on a raid to Tagmachig, to pay these people back in their own coin. h is astonishing to find that in those unsafe limes trade was carried on through Western Tibet, apparently between India and Yarkand. There are the rums of an ancient fortified custom-house, called Balukar, not r'Jr trom Kalatse, This custom-house guarded an detent bridge across the Indus, and the custom-officer wjto was stationed there had the title mdo gtsong ,s"' "ford of the trade in the lower valley." As many ancient beads have been found at this sile, 11 's believed that the tax had to be paid in kind not in money; for not a single com lias as yet en discovered there The ancient orthography 50 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET employed in the inscription and other circumstances make it probable thai the inscription was carved on the rock below the castle about 800-1000 a.d.: more probably under the Tibetan king Tri shrong de tsan. There are two ancient Central Tibetan kings, Mu tri tsanpo and Tri shrong de tsan, who claim to have conquered Western Tibet during this period. Turning to the religious condition of the country, we remark that in those days there were apparently two religions co-existent in Western Tibet : Buddhism and Bonchos. Buddhism had entered the country by two channels : the ancient Mons had brought it from India, and the Dards from Gilgit. During this period Buddhism was strengthened fay the emigration of many Buddhist monks from Kashmir. Concerning this emigration there exit written records, and one of them is the Tibetan work Padama bka btang. The emigration did not take place in consequence of severe persecution; it had its origin in the general decline from Buddhism in Kashmir, which deprived the monks of their sources of revenue. The time when this emigration took place can be roughly fixed at about 600-1000 a.d. When Hiuen Tsang visited Kashmir, he found "the mass of the population addicted to the devas, and the monasteries few and partly deserted." If Ou khong's account is correct, the Buddhism of Kashmir looked a little more hopeful at the time of his visit; bui after the destruction of the famous monastery of THE TIBETO-DAR.D KINGDOMS 51 Nálanda in the ninth century it was fast losing ground-The most famous among the pupils of the Kashmir Buddhists who settled in Ladakh was Lotsava Rinchen bzangpo. He lived in the year 954 according to Schlagintweit. According to the Tibetan historical work mentioned above, the Kashmiri monks first settled at Sanid in Zangskar, and built the Kanika monastery.' When they had finished painting the pictures some paint remained, and to make use of it they decided to build another monastery at Sumda in Piling, and a third at Alchi. The fourth given in the record is the Manggyu monastery. These monasteries can be easily distinguished from the rest of the Ladakhi monasteries, their special marks being the following : the door beams and lintels are very thick and ornamented all over with mythological wood-carvings. Of special interest are the galleries, if they have been preserved, as, for instance, at Alchi. with their trefoiled arches in genuine Kashmir style. The large hall is decorated with paintings only : if there are images in it nowadays they are later additions. These paintings represent Buddhist saints, often nude and in a standing position, and are sometimes painted on oval medallions which rise a httle above the surface of the wall. Although only four monasteries are mentioned in the Tibetan book, 1 h is remarkable that the monks of this monastery wear the red garb. This shows lhal the yellow robe nf such Zangskar monasteries as, for instance. Gargya, was not introduced by toe Kashmir monks. 52 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET several more have been built by Kashmiri emigrants, because in at least two more ruined monasteries K. Marx was able to point out the characteristics given above. One he discovered at Basgo and another at Chigtan. I have visited the latter and discovered in the hall, besides a Tibetan inscription by the chiefs of Chigtan, a Sanskrit inscription in Kashmir Sarada characters. The fact that by these monks the Sarada characters were used seems to provide a clue to the nature of the well-known stone images at Dras. General Cunningham found on one of them an inscription in Kashmir Sarada characters, and read the word Maitreyan among others. As, however, the principal figure represented in his opinion a woman, he did not know what to make of it. According to the judgment of the Ladakhis, the figure is not a woman, but a plain Maitreya, and in these sculptures we probably have a monument of the introduction of Buddhist art from Kashmir, The religion of the Tibetan part of the population was from time immemorial the Bon chos. Although without a systematised religion for centuries, the contact with Buddhism taught the advisability of systematising the Bon chos and accepting certain forms from Buddhism. Thus lists of the water-spirits (klu) and other spirits were drawn up and monasteries founded. 1 am told that in some parts of Tibet Bonpo monasteries are still in existence. The most famous Bonpo monastery of Ladakh, according to popul^ tradition, was the Yungdrung monastery (now called ĽNSOF CUSTOM HOUSE AT BALUKAR i'fam by P. Bernard. THE TIBETO-DARD KINGDOMS 53 tamayuru or Yuru). It was called after the svaslika (in Tibetan yungdrung), one of the symbols of the Bon chos, as well as of Buddhism and many other religions. In the folklore of Western Tibet much of the unsystematised Bon chos seems to have been preserved, and the religious system of West Tibetan folklore has been drawn up by me under the name of gLing chos. The main features öf this religion are the following : The world consists of three great realms : the land of the gods, or heaven, which is of white colour; the land of men, or the earth, of red colour; and the land of the water-spirits, or lower world, of blue colour. There is a king reigning in heaven as well as in the under-world, but the greatest in power on the earth is the "earth-mother." There is a huge tree, the tree of the world, growing through all the three realms. It has its roots in the under-world and its highest branches in heaven. The king of heaven is asked to send one of his sons as king to the earth, and around the story of the mission of the youngest son of the king of heaven to the earth the national epic of Tibet in general, and Western Tibet in particular, has grown up. Different from the national epic of other nations, the Tihetan national epic has not been preserved in one single version. Almost every village of Western Tibet has a version of its own which generally differs much from the version of the next village. But there ts a version in existence which we may call the 54 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET "official version." Lamaism took hold of this famous topic, and a poem was composed in which the ancient pre-Buddhist religious system was reconciled with Buddhism. This poem has, however, not achieved any popularity in Western Tibet. Here people prefer to listen to the village bard, when he sings to them the ancient songs, quaintly intermingled with passages in prose. The following is an abstract giving the main drift of the national epic : I. The forefather sows some seed, and a huge tree grows, from which a harvest of much fruit is obtained. The fruit is stored in a barn, and many worms come out of it. They eat up each other, until only one big worm remains. This changes into a boy, who marries eighteen girls, from whom the eighteen Agus (the heroes of the epic) are bom. Then the boy kills a giant and builds the world out of his flesh and bones, in particular the castle of Ling. The Agus go to a very distant castle, from which they rob the treasures and store them up at Ling. II. The king of heaven is assisted by one of the Agus when fighting the devil, and the Agu is allowed to ask a boon. He asks that one of the sons of the king of heaven may be sent to the earth as king. The youngest, Dongrub, is sent. He dies in heaven and is re-bom on earth to a woman who had swallowed him in the form of a hailstone. Although he is the glorious King Kesar of Ling* he often exchanges his glorious appearance for a THE TIBETO-DARD KINGDOMS 55 very poor outside, and also makes himself invisible. The traitor among the Agus makes some unsuccessful attempts to kill him. HE. Kesar is to be married to the maiden Bruguma, but her parents object to give him their daughter on account of his beggarly appearance. He has to accomplish several impossible tasks : peeling the skin off a huge yak who stretches from one hill to another, and cutting a wing off the sun-bird. He succeeds, and is accepted as son-in-law. IV. The King of China becomes ill, and Kesar alone is able to heal him. The road to China is very difficult to find; besides, there are obstacles of many kinds, water, hills, snowstorms, ice, stones flying about in the air, male and female ogres. All are overcome, and the King of China is healed. The daughter of the king runs away with Kesar. As, however, the treasures of the king are carried off by the couple, Kesar is followed and thrown into a pit with three dragons. Kesar escapes in the shape °f a fly, and goes to Ling with his new bride. Meanwhile the traitor among the Agus has seized the castle and turned out Bruguma. The traitor as wel1 as the King of China are punished, and Kesar llv«s happily with his two wives. V. Kesar goes to the North to conquer the giants » the North. Bruguma, who wants to accompany P«, is sent back. After many difficulties Kesar arrives Wore the giant's castie, but does not find the giant home. The giant's wife takes him in, and both 56 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET have a happy time together. The giant's approach is indicated by an earthquake, and Kesar is hid by the lady in a hole underneath the ground. Although the giant smells at once the presence of a human being, he is pacified by his wife and induced to go to sleep. When he is fast asleep, Kesar is brought out of the hole and kills the giant. VI. Whilst Kesar was away, the King of Hor had overrun the land of Ling and stolen Bruguma. A message is carried to Kesar by storks, and he starts to save her. In the land of Hor he takes service at a smith's, and leams the trade. With the help of an iron rope made with the assistance of the smith, Kesar ascends the castle of Hor and kills the king in a wrestling contest. Bruguma, who is not quite without fault in the affair, is punished, and then both live happily together at the Ling castle. Although there are many general features in the epic which remind us of Aryan and European myths, the groundwork of the sagas is apparently of Indo-Chinese origin, as almost the same tales are found in Chinese folklore. When, however, the similarity of minor features of the sagas with European and Indian tales is very great, we may suspect that in such cases the influence of the Mon and Dard colonies on this ancient literature makes itself felt. 1 imagine that about the year 1000 a.D. the popularity of the Kesar saga was very great. Personal names were taken from the saga. The dynasty O' the ancient kings of Leh called itself after Kesar. THE TIBĽTO-DARD KINGDOMS 57 at Kalatse the name of rGya shin (the name of Kesar's heavenly father) occurs not only in a king's name but also in the names of other men, as is proved by rock-inscriptions. Also the name of the ancient castle at Spadům contains the same word. It was called Spa dum rgya zhin pholad sku mkhar I add a poem taken from the Kesar cycle (Ladakhi "~ngs, No. XXVII). BRUGUMA'S FAREWELL TO KESAR Oh, my clever king! When thou goest lo the upper land of the gods. And seest all the fairies of heaven. Then do not forget thy wife from the land of men! Oh, my wise lord! When thou goes! to the upper land of the gods, And seest all the beauties among the fairies, Then do not reject Bruguma from the land of men! Oh, my clever king! When thou goest to the lower land of the nixes, And seest ail the lady-nixes of it, Then do not forgest thy wife from the land of men! Oh, my wise lord! When thou goest to the lower land of the nixes, And seest all the beauties among its ladies, Then do not reject thy helpmate from the land of men! VI THE INAUGURATION OF THE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY AND ITS FIRST KINGS, ABOUT 900-1400 a.d. On most inscriptions the Ladakhi kings call themselves "descendants of Nya tri tsanpo" (gNya khri btsanpo), the first king of Tibet, whose date is about 200 or 300 b.c. But, although these kings are very proud of belonging to the family of the great kings of Tibet, they do not wish to be reminded of the fact that their special ancestor, after whom their dynastry branched off from the Central Tibetan dynastry, was Langdarma, the famous "Julian the Apostate" of Buddhism. Although Buddhism had been introduced into Central Tibet about 400 a.D., it did not become a great religion until King Shrong tsan sgampo, about 629 a.D., openly accepted it and used his influence to let it spread over the whole of Tibet. Still, fof about two more centuries, it had to fight for its existence, as the adherents of the ancient Bon chos of Tibet were not willing to give up their natioSS creed for one introduced from a foreign coun THE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY 59 About 900 a.d. the hope of the friends of the Bon chos was centred in Prince Langdarma. Although Langdarma was older than his brother Raipachan. he was excluded from the succession on the ground that lie was inimical to Buddhism. However, he got his chance when his brother was strangled by the enemies of Buddhism. His first measure was to deprive the monasteries of the conditions of tenure, and, in consequence of this, many Indian pandits left Tibet. But the king found that these had not sufficient effect, and lie began to persecute Buddhism openly. He was not quite without humour in his anger. Half of the many Buddhist monks had to become butchers, and the other half hunters. Whoever did not show a liking for his new profession was decapitated. But when Langdarma thought that he had succeeded in annihilating Buddhism, the snake which he thought he had crushed bií him. A Buddhist hermit put on a robe, black on the outside and white ""side, because only black clothing (the colour of ™ Bon chos) was allowed to be worn in those days. ut underneath his coal he kept a bow and arrow ro readiness. He approached the king, as if. he were ^suppliant, and threw himself down on the floor. nai Langdarma walked up to him, he suddenly ** and shot the king through his heart. Then, in er not to be recognised by those who had seen enter in black, he put on his dress with the n'te outside and escaped. •"s Langdarma is the special ancestor of the DO A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Western Tibetan kings. There is still an interesting reminiscence of Langdarma in the mode of dressing the hair of the Ladakhi ex-kings. They wear long hair to cover the middle part of the head. People say that Langdarma had to wear his hair in this fashion to cover two horns, each an inch long, which grew out of his head. These horns proved that Langdarma was a devil in his role of "Julian the Apostate" of Buddhism. But the idea of his having horns may have been suggested by the first part of his name, which means "ox." We are now entering the domain of Western Tibetan historiography, which, though not of classical value, as K. Marx justly remarks, is of the greatest importance for the student of history. Although it does not enable us to fix exact dates for the Ladakhi kings, it enables us to fix. approximate dates with a great amount of certainty. It forms the backbone of the following outline of history, and quotations or information from it will always be marked thus [-----]. Fortunately, we are able in many cases to enlarge on it, as documents on stone and paper will become more and more plentiful as we proceed [Langdarma had a legitimate son from the lesser queen, called Odshrung (about 925-950); but the« was also an illegitimate son of the great queen, calle Yumstan, and it was the latter who seized tne government of Central Tibet.] . [Odshrung's son was Ldepal kortsan {Lde "/*?' khor btsan), about 950-975.] THE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY 61 [Ldepal kortsan had two sons—Skyid lde nyima qon (about 975-1000) and Trashi tsegspal. Both were robbed of all their possessions in Central Tibet by Yumstan, and fled to Western Tibet (called Ngaris in those days). Trashi tsegspal became king of the most eastern portion of Western Tibet, called Yarlung. But Skyid lde nyima gon conquered Western Tibet completely, although at the outset his army numbered only 300 horsemen. On his way to Western Tibet he was once in such straitened circumstances that he had nothing to eat but eggs and fish. Now, his servants brought him this dish covered with a large napkin. From this it has -come to be a custom with the kings of Tibet to use to so-called giant's napkin, which custom is still observed by the kings of Ladakh.] The Dard people of Garkunu sing a song of King Nyima gon (which means something like "Sun-lord") and his son Zlaba gon (which means something like 'Moon-lord"), According to this song Zlaba gon ■s killed by a Lama, Although I do not believe that Nyima gon had a son Zlaba gon, I presume that lne Dard people, who were conquered by Nyima 8°n, knew that he was a descendant of Langdarma, w«o had been murdered by a Lama, and later on ■nixed up his forefather and son, But a song like 15 is one of the most certain proofs that the whole " estem Tibet was actually conquered by this king. L the principal towns and castles said to have been t by Nyima gon are : Karmar in Rutog in the 62 A HISTORY OF WĽSTERN TIBET horse-year; Tseshogyari (not known) in the sheep-year;' several villages in Dam and Lag (probably in the Upper Sutlej valley), and Nyizungs in Purang, from which place he also obtained his wife.] He is also, apparently, the king who ordered the principal sculptures at Sheh, which are nowadays known as Sman la, to be executed- In an inscription he says that he had them made for the religious benefit of the Tsanpo (the dynastical name of his father and ancestors), and of all the people of Ngaris (Western Tibet). This shows that already in this generation Langdarma's opposition to Buddhism had disappeared. 1 As these are the first dates given in the West Tibeta» chronicles, it will be in place to say a few words about Tibetan chronology. The Tibetans as well as the Chinese have lvcIcs of sixty years, which are differentiated by numbers. The first Tibetan cycle begins with the year 1024 .(.» (1026, according to Waddell). This great cycle of Sixty years contains small«! cycles of twelve years each, the single years of which are nam« after twelve animals. To be able to distinguish between If« same animal years within the cycle of sixty, the animals' names are coupled with the names of the Tibete» five elements. Ihm a date is complete if the following is given : 1. The m,B**| of the great cycle; 2. the animal of the little cycle, 3, * element. For instance, the watet-ox year of the fourteenth ;.vc is the year 1853. But in most cases the date is not given comple*l enough to be of much use. In the most ancient dates, aS the present case, only the animal's name is given. Some "I between 1500 and 1600 the Ladakhis began to combine animal's name with that of the element. Dates furnished a J with the number of the cycle of sixty do not occur be o the nineteenth century. m LlV q@m PdR MAGE OF MATTREYA, RAISED PROBABLY NYIMAGON, ABOUT 975 A.D. Fbtif!' by liru. Aiira. THE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY 63 [Lha cheti palg\-i gon, about 1000-102 5. Nyima gon had three sons, among whom he divided his kingdom. Bui it seems to have been understood that the younger brothers were in some degree of vassalage under their elder brother; for the kings of Lch continually claimed authority over the entire kingdom of Nyima gon. Lha c hen palgyi gon, the eldest, received Ladakh proper, from the Zoji Pass to Rutog and the goldmine of Gog. The name Gog is probably used in error for Grog, pronounced Dog, the Thog of the maps, east of Rutog. His portion was not only the largest, but certainly the most beautiful part of the empire. Trashis gon, the second, received a long and narrow strip of country along the northern slope of 'he Himalayas, of which Purang and Guge are the best-known provinces. Lde tsug gon, the youngest, received the southern Provinces of the kingdom, of which Zangskar, Lahoul, md Spin are best known. His portion was the tallest.] Of j°thinĚ ÍS known about Trashis gon's descendants. Lde tsug gon's descendants eight generations are ils VVn ^!IS ''ne °fkillrSs has become famous through beMC°innectlon w,tn the Buddhist teacher Aiisa. The ÖW. n °f its kings are Yeshes od ^d Jang °n the H accompanying map the empire of King S°n with its three divisions is shown. 64 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET [Drogon and Chosgon, about 1025-1050, were the two sons of Lha chen palgyi gon.] As in several other cases, nothing besides the names is as yet known. [Lha chen dragspa Ide, about 1050-1075, was the son of Dragon.] [Lha chen jang chub semspa. about 1075-1100, was the son of the preceding.] [Lha chen rgyalpo, about 1100-1125, the son of the preceding. He built the first real Lamasery in the country at Likir near Saspol, and caused a brotherhood of Lamas to settle down there.] Likir looks a little out of the way; but in those days Likir was a town on the great trade road, Before the present road along the Indus was cleared by the blasting of many rocks, the ordinary route to Leh was by Ti.igmogang, Hemis, and Likir. I have visited the monastery and found it a very stately building indeed; but its present shape seems to go back only to about the time when it adopted the reformed doctrine (see later}. S'ill, its foundations and some of the wood-w .Tt. and pictures are certainly old. Most of the wall -paintings were renovated recently. A very beautiful pcj f-il-ccdar close to the monastery is said to have been planted by Lha chen rgyalpo. [Also the recluses that lived in the neighbouiho°d of the three lakes (Panggong, etc.) he provided for a long time, with untiring zeal, with a necessan of life, When they were numerous there were abo"1! five hundred, when few, one hundred.] ^UPwfeiL^ BRAGNAG CASTLE AT KALATSE. Photo by Sack!, London. THE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY 65 In a popular saying, in which all the most ancient things of Ladakli are put together, the Likir monastery is given as the most ancient monastery, although those erected by Kashmiri monks are certainly older. [Lha chen Utpala, about 1125-1150, the son of Lha chen rgyalpo, He united the forces of Upper and Lower Ladakh, subjected all the vassal chiefs, and even conquered a new province, Lowo, east of Purang]; so that his empire was perhaps even greater than that of Nymia gon. [All the vassal chiefs had to pay tribute and attend the annual council. He also invaded Kulu, and the King of Kulu bound himself by oath, "so long as the glaciers of the Kailasa do not melt away, or the Manasrowar Lake dry up, to pay his tribute to the King of Ladakli, "in particular Duos and iron,] This treaty remained in force at least down to the times of King Sengge namgyal. It may be asked : Why did he not annihilate the vassal princes'? Eastern policy does not seem to have «Ought that advisable. Wars were only entered upon *"th the desire to tili one's pockets. These conquerors «lew very well that a great deal more money could ■e: squeezed out of a country if the old chieftain Gained in it [Lha chen Naghtg, about 1150-1175, the son of 'J former. This king built the palace at Wanla in With she \ ll »wing mav be added : Before the advent of the J'gei' year, and Kalatse in the dragon year.] '|h regard to the building of Kalatse, the 66 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Central Tibetans, there used to be a Dard colony at Kalatse. These Dards had their stronghold in a castle about a mile above the present village, on the brook. The ruins of this castle, as well as of extensive fields and watercourses, can still be seen in the valley. The local Dard chieftains of Kalatse had their castle on the bank of the Indus, to guard a bridge. This bridge was built in opposition to the Balu khar bridge, three miles off, probably to draw the trade to their own territories. King Naglug is credited with having built the Bragnag castle on the rock, towering above Kalatse, and in the popular saying of all the most ancient things, cited above, the Kalatse castle is called the first castle in the country, and popular tradition adds that it had to accommodate sixteen families. Besides, King Naglug seems to have constructed the first bridge across the Indus in the very same place where the present bridge is. The reason was certainly to draw the trade to his new bridge and thus secure the taxes. There still exists a stone inscription in close vicinity to the present bridge, which records the first construction of a bridge in this place and gives the dragon year (the date given in the chronicles as the date of the building of Kalatse) as the date of the construction of the bridge. But the proper name of the king 's not given. The inscription simply speaks of "i great king." The edict ends up with a threat to aK who might feel inclined to damage the new bridg And this threat may have been necessary, beca THE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY 67 the Dard kings of Kalatse may not have wished to see it exclusively used, The threat runs as follows : Whoever thinks evil of it in his heart. Let his heart rot! Whoever stretches his hand towards it. Let his hand be cut off! Whoever harms it with his eye, May his eye become blind! Whoever does any harm to the bridge, May that creature be bom in hell! [Lha chen gebhe and Gebum, about 1175-1200, were the sons of Lha chen naglug.] [Lha chen Joldot; about 1200-1225, was probably the son of Gebhe. | [Trashis gon (bKrashis mgon), about 1225-1250, was the son of Joidor.] [Lhargyal. about 1250-1275. He was the son of Trashis gon.] According lo my theory, propounded elsewhere, the full name of Ihis king was Lha chen Kuttga namgyal. This name has been preserved to w on an ancient sculpture near the village of Daru. j™- principal sculpture represents a Vajrapani Phyagrdor) as its central figure, Vajrapani seems o have been the favourite deity oľ this king; for |? ordered a treatise on the Vajra point (the rGynd 'gKie rtsemo) to be copied in gold. Besides this, ordered two other voluminous Lamaist works to ^copied in gold on indigo-tinted paper]. This is "rst record of the introduction of Lamaist erature into Western Tibet. vJia chenjopal (dpal), about 1275-1300, the son 68 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET of the preceding. This king performed royal as well as clerical dunes to such perfection that he reached Nirvana.] In a popular song rhe happy days under King Jopal are described : under this king people became so rich that they wore hats of gold, and their mouths never became empty of tea and beer. Masters and servants alike spent their days in frolic and merriment. [Uta chen ngorub (dngos grub), about 1300-1325, Jopaľs son. During the reign of this king the usage of novices going to Central Tibet was first introduction. | This arrangement was not only the death-blow to the Bon-religion of Ladakh, which had probably lingered on down to that time; it meant also the end of the ancient forms of Indian Buddhism, which had had their principal seats in the grand monasteries erected by the Kashmir emigrants. Individuality was stamped out, and Lhasa became a literary centre. Apart from this the nation of Western Tibet, which had a very great gift for poetry, was prevented from developing a national literature. Without the authority of Lhasa nothing could attain to any popularity; so we find that national literature, with few exceptions, is not found in the country. But the high standard of West Tibetan folklore shows plainly what a high position the literary genius of the people would have taken had it been given free and fair play, in accordance with his plan of bringing Central Tibetan literature to a prominent position in his country [this king ordered the colossal Tibetan Encyclopaedia ol Lamaism. called Kangyur (a library of i OS volumes) "11 IE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY Ů9 to be copied twice, and a book of secret spells to be copied many times. He also repaired the monasteries which had been built by his ancestors, probably those in particular which had been built by Lha chen gyalpo at Likir and on the lakes. Not content with that, he made costly offerings to Buddha of gold, silver, copper, coral beads, pearls, etc.]. [Lha chen gyalbu rinchen, about 1325-1350, the son of Lha chen ngorub.] That is all that we leam about him from the Ladakhi chronicles, and it is strange that no more is said of him, because for three generations before him the accounts have been a little fuller and grow in fulness after him. It is also remarkable that he is called gyalbu, prince. The epithet lha chen, great god, is the common title of all West Tibetan kings. An explanation is found in the chronicles of Kashmir, the famous Raja tarangini. Although the second part of this historical work, after 1150, by Jonaraja, has not yet been critically treated by a great scholar, we know enough of it to trace Prince ' .chen's career. The following is quoted from Sir Walter wren.ee 's account of the history of Kashmir : "At the beginning of the fourteenth century, when imha Deva was king, Kashmir was a country of "inkards and gamblers. It was a most fitting time or the Tartar king Zulkadar Khan to invade the ountry. Helpless Simha Deva fled to Kishtawar, and e Tartars slaughtered the people, took slaves, and et fire to the city of Srinagar. After an occupation of eight months, the Tartars, who had depopulated 70 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET the valley, found provisions scarce and tried to get out of Kashmir by the southern passes, but snow overtook them, and Zulkadar Khan and his army and his Kashmiri captives perished. "Meanwhile Ram Chand, the commander-in-chief of Simha Deva, had been trying to keep up some semblance of authroity in the valley, and when the Tartars departed he moved down and drove out the Gaddis, who had come in on a raid. "Ram Chand had with him two men who were destined to play an important part in the history of Kashmir. One was Shah Mirza, from Swat, at whose birth it was prophesied that he would become king of Kashmir; the other was Rainchan Shah, who, having quarrelled with his father, the king of Tibet, came as an adventurer to the valley. "Ramchan Shah (or Rinchana Bhoti, Rinchen the Tibetan, as he is called by Cunningham) seems to be none other than the Tibetan 'Prince Rinchen.' It has always been the custom among the West Tibetan kings to make the heir-apparent assistant to his father, when he reached manhood. As regent, Rinchen held different opinions from his father, Rinchen left Ladakh apparently after a son had been bom to him, for there is no break in the line of succession. "Before many days passed, Rainchan Shah broke with Ram Chand, and, with the assistance of his Tibetans, attacked and killed him. This took place at Lahara kotta, the present Lor, in the Sind valley. He then married Kula Rani, Ram Chanď s daughter, THE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY 71 and proclaimed himself king, 1323 a.d. (Cunningham calls the daughter Ram C nand, and her father Sena Deva. He gives 1315, and, in another place, the middle of the fourteenth century as the date of the event. Also J.C. Dutta's date, 1323, is only approximately correct. Thus we may say that the event took place some time between 1315 and 1350.) "Rainchan Shah, who had no strong convictions, found it necessary to adopt one or the other forms of faith which existed in Kashmir. He could not become a Hindu, because none of the Hindu castes would admit him to their brotherhood. One morning he saw a Mohammedan at his prayers, and, admiring this form, of devotion, he adopted Mohammedanism and took the name of Sadr ud din. He built the Jama mosque and a great shrine for Bulbul Shah, the man whose devotion he had admired. The shrine is still known by the name 'Bulbul Lankar.' "After a short reign of two and a half years Rinchen, the first of the Mussulman kings of Kashmir, died. His widow married first a brother of the old king, Simha Deva, and afterwards Shah Mirza, who became king of Kashmir and thus fulfilled the prophecy about him." It is incredible that the news of Rinchen's accession to the throne of Kashmir was not made known in Ladakh. That no mention is made of this m the Tibetan chronicles may be due to his change °f religion. That is the sin which the Lamas who wrote the chronicles could not forgive, and we shall meet with a very similar case later on. 72 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET It may be said that Rainchan Shah could just as well have hailed from Zangskar, Pung, or Baltistan. That is quite possible, but, in the absence of any historical records about these countries, we are glad that there are three distinct facts which point to the identity of Gyalbu Rmchen with Rainchan Shah, viz., 1. the coincidence of time; 2. the identity of the name; 3. the fact that the Tibetan record speaks of Rinchen only as a "prince."1 [Lha chen shesrab, about 1350-1375, the son of Gyalbu Rinchen. He built the hamlet Sengge sgang on the top of the Hangtsemo rock, at Sabu, six miles south-east of Leh, and made it a dependency of the Chang castle at Sabu.] The Chang castle was apparently one of the royal castles which, in the absence of the king, was occupied by his nominee, who received taxes from all the villages round about. I visited the site, and people told me that the rock was called Hlangtsemo (glang rtsemo) and the castle Shangkar or even Sangkar; but the name of the village Sengge sgang was not known. Local tradition still speaks of the Sangkar castle as the beginning of Sabu. The site is on the ridge of mountains west of Sabu, and I found the hillside covered with ruined houses, it does not seem to have been occupied for a long time. The eastern side of the valley beiny more sunny, the king's minister moved there with the whole population, and built the village of Sabu and the "minister's castle," which is now in ruins. Another account of .Prince Rinchen's career, according n> material supplied by Dr. Vogcl. is given in the Appendix. THE CENTRAL TIBETAN DYNASTY 73 An ancient chorten below the ruined village of Sengge sgang seems to go back to the time of its creation. On one of the last hills at the end of the western range of mountains are the ruins of a watch-tower which enabled the ministers of Sabu to overlook the country from their castles. [Lha chen tri tsug Ide (Khn btsug Ide), about 1375-1400, the son of Shesrab. He built one row of chortens numbering 108 at Leh, and two such rows at Sabu.] These rows of chortens, which were the forerunners of the mani-walls of which we shall hear later on, usually consist of chortens not higher than two or three feet, and in their dilapidated condition resemble low walls, builts at random anyhow Woss the desert. But those built by kings are at least six feet high- Of those at Sabu there is still a fragment left, of about six yards. It looks as if the other portion of it had been carried away by a flood This is the last of the ancient kings, about whom we have but scanty information, and before we enter the next period of history, let us listen to a passage from the ancient epic on King Nyima gon. Oh Father Nyima gon, Do not go a-hunting! In my dream last night I saw something bad in my dream. I, a boy, had to die! I saw the colour of blood on my golden saddle. I shall no more dance to the sound of trumpets and channets, Oh king, do not go a-huntmg, Thy son Zlava gon has to die! vri THE DAYS OF THE GREAT REFORMER TSONGKAPA, AND THE FALL OF THE FIRST DYNASTY, ABOUT 1400-1580 From 1378-1441 a.d,1 there lived in Tibet a great Lama, whose name was Tsongkapa. He found the Buddhism of Tibet in at least as rotten a state as it is now, and determined to reform it. He sat down to study the writings of the founder of this religion, and soon discovered that there were great discrepancies between what ought to have been and the actual facts. Among other discoveries which he made in the field of Lamaism was this, that the dress of the Lamas in no way corresponded with that of the early Buddhists. It was red and theirs yellow. Thus he resolved to found a new sect called the "virtuous ones," and to raise the moral standard of the monks to the standard, if possible, of the early Indian Buddhist monks. He would also have liked to exchange the red dress for the yellow, but public ' These numbers are given in Grünwedcl and Pander 's Pantheon. Sarat Chandra Das gives 1418 as the year of TsongEcapa's death. THE DAYS OF TSONGKAPA 75 opinion seems to have been against it. People had got so much accustomed to the red garment of the Lamas that they would not have shown respect to a Lama in yellow dress. Thus Tsongkapa contented himself with the introduction of yellow caps and scarves. And, as with the dress, so it was with the morals. They could be raised only as high as public opinion would permit them to be. About 1400 a.d. there were two kings in Western Tibet. Tri tsug lde had two sons : Lha chen dragspa bum lde, popularly called Lde. and Dragspa bum. generally known as Dragspa. Although Lde was the eldest and ought to have been king alone, Dragspa would not yield, and took possession of part of the kingdom. The^ two brothers were of very different character. Lde was of a mild and merciful disposition; Dragspa was fierce, gloomy, and inconsiderate. Lde was religiously inclined; Dragspa did not care in the least about his future state. Lde was thoughtful about even the low-caste people among his subjects; Dragspa could not bear the idea of having a brother king beside him. [Lde commenced his career with the erection of a number of religious buildings. First he erected the "Red College," probably the one on the Namgyaltsemo hill behind Leh, and, perhaps on the same hill, a wood and clay statue of Maitreya, in a sitting posture, 25 feet high. There is a statue of this description on Namgyaitsemo hill, the head of which reaches through the ceiling of the first story. But the statues 76 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET of Manjushri and Vajrapani, which are said to have been on the right and left, are no more, although there are traces of the pedestal of at least one of them. Mam,' frescoes which this king is reported to have caused to be painted can be seen in the same temple. He also built a triple temple, one surmounting the other, on the pattern of an ancient temple erected by King Yeshes od of Zangskar at Toling, about 954, on the Upper Sutlej.] Where that is has not yet been traced. With more certainty the sites of the following edifices can be fixed : [The little monastery, for four Lamas, which he built on the crag resembling an elephant, in the lower part of the Leh valley, the ruins of which are still extant; and the colossal shorten, the largest in all Ladakh, which he built over the "Yellow Crag," about one mile above Leh. It was erected because some "fatality" had occurred at Leh]. This sounds rather mysterious, but I think that the results of modern excavations, carried on occasionally by some of the missionaries, throw some light on the matter. We discovered in close vicinity to the chorten an ancient grave, with numerous entire skeletons, the skulls of which were of distinctly dolicho-cephalic shape, and several well-preserved clay-pots, some of which were ornamented with a dark red design. As far as we can make out, this grave goes back to Dard times. Another grave was discovered close by, but not opened. There seem to be a number of other graves m the neighbourhood. THE DAYS OF TSONGKAPA 77 The "fatality" which had occurred al Leh was probably a serious illness of some important personage or an infectious disease, and the spirits of the old Dards who roamed about in the vicinity were suspected to be the authors. To make their excursions ineffective the magic power of a huge chorten seems to have been considered sufficient. Thus over the ancient burial-ground [the Ten trashi od to was erected, containing 108 temple shrines, and of the shape of a chorten]. When King Lde had done all this he believed he had gained enough religious merit. for he said : [If I die now it matters not]. But there was more in store for him to do: for about that time an embassy from the famous Tsongkapa arrived in Ladakh. Of this event the chronicles say : [At that time it came to pass that the Omniscient of the period of degeneration, the great Tsongkapfa. having in his possession a Tse nag med (literally "eternal life") about as long as a finger, joint, which originated from the blood of his Ito (I believe that it was a short summary of his doctrines, perhaps written with his own blood), entrusted the same to two ascetics and said : "Give it either to the one called Dragspa, or to the one called Lde!" When the two arrived in Western Tibet, the one Called Dragspa was m Nubra. They went into his presence, but he did not deign to look at it with so much as one eye. So they went on to Leh. On the morrow the king gave command, "At to-day's council, whoever attends, be it ascetic or a low- 78 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET caste man, Bheda,' Mon, or Shoemaker, he should not be refused admittance." Now, when the two ascetics came into his presence, the king rose and went to meet them. They made over the present. and the king was delighted with it]. The first consequence of the reformer's embassy was that King Lde [built the Spitug monastery; though in reaiity he did not build it, but it came into existence by a miracle]. This monastery was the first in Ladakh Of "the virtuous sect," founded by Tsongkapa. The most important other monasteries of the same sect in Ladakh which were founded in course of time by other kings were : the Sangkar monastery near Leh, the Rirdzong monastery near Hemis shugpachan (this is not yet a century old), and the Trigtse monastery, twelve miles above Leh on the Indus Several other monasteries exchanged the old doctrine for the new; for instance, Likir, [King Lde caused many brotherhoods of Lamas to settle ill the country.) From what has been said it would appear that King Lde's piety was no more than an outward form. From an edict carved on the living rock at Mulbe wc learn, however, that his religious sense was of a high type, and that it was his earnest desire to purify the Buddhism of his country. One of the besi known doctrines of Buddhism is the prohibition to Bheda is a Sanskrit word meaning "difference" As the taste of the Bhedas is still lower than lhal of the Molls. I believe that diey are the descendants of Ihe servants of the anciem M ons, who lay iheir name had pointed out that they were not equal to Ihem. THE DAYS OF TSONGKAPA 79 take animal life. But although Buddhism had been the religion of Western Tibet for many centuries, people had always shown a remarkable laxity with regard to the execution of this commandment. Not only were the people great hunters, but also the cruel sacrifices of living animals before the altars of pre-Buddhist deities were not yet abolished. At least once :.or twice a year a goat is offered before those altars -isn every village, when the heart is torn out of the living animal. The edict of Mulbe is directed against this cruel rite. It inns as follows: , "O Lama (Tsongkapa), take notice of this! The king of faith, Bum Ide, having seen the fruit of works in the future life, gives order to the men of Mulbe to abolish, above all, the living sacrifices, and greets the I^ama. Hie living sacrifices are abolished." It is not likely that Lde would have published his edict at Mulbe only, but in the other villages it was perhaps written on wooden boards. At any rate, in spite of special investigations, no other edict of a similar character has as yet been discovered. I But with the removal of sacrifices the king was bo more successful than Tsongkapa with the reformation of the Church. Public opinion was against it, and we find the opinion of the people of Mulbe expressed in an inscription on the same rock, by the side of the edict in which they call King Lde's order too hard to be executed. For what would the fecal deity say, if the goat were withheld from him? 80 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Mean« hile Dragspa had gone his own way. [His principal seats were the villages of Basgo and Teya Tingaiögang. He is called the builder of the royal City of Tingmongang.] Here it is as it is with Kaiatse. We must not imagine that there was nothing in the place before he came. From the Balu kar inscription it appears likely that there was a village called Imgbrang in the same valley in olden times; arid a stone image, which is of striking similarity to those ol'Gilgit, would point to an originally Dard occupation of the place. But Dragspa built the now ruined town on the top of a low hill and its extensive fortifications, together with a stately castle above the town, and several watch-towers higher up. It was probably also Dragspa who improved the ancient fortifications ai Basgo, to make them a stronghold of the first rank. In a great number of inscriptions after him, it is the castles at Basgo and Tingmogang, besides the palace erected later on at Leh, which are praised as the most valuable possessions of the Ladakhi kings. We heard that Dragspa was in Nubra at the time of Tsongkapa's embassy. What was he doing there" we may ask; but no answer is given in the chronicles. I believe, however, that he went there to draw the local chief of Nubra over to his side, in order to make himself supreme king. [Loáŕos chog Idan (bio gros mchog tdan), about 1440-1470. King Lde had three sons, the eldest of whom, Lodros chog Idan, became supreme king after him. It appears strange that the second of his sons THE DAYS OF TSONGKAPA 81 had the half Mohammedan name Dungpa Ali. Could one of Lde's queens have been a Mohammedan lady?1 Bui also Dragspa had a son who became king after him in the villages which he had made his own. Lodros chog Idan's reign began under good auspices. The chronicles say : [Having conquered Ngans skor sum (Western Tibet), his dominions grew much in extent]. This can only mean that all the vassal chiefs were subdued once more, and that the King of Leh was the real master of the empire. His greatest triumph was [the arrival of vast quantities öf presents and tribute from Guge in the east : fifty grey ponies, fifty isabel. twenty black, and thirty piebald ones; twenty young yak-cows, and twenty light-brown (a very rare colour) yak-bulls; sheep in immense quantities, and very valuable weapons. All these weapons had appropriate names, and the most striking among them were "the resplendent devilcoat-of-mail," the coat-of-mail "devil darkness," the white "gods" coat-of-mail: the sword "licking blood off the sky," the sword "wild yak, long point," 1 According to the Kashmir chronicles Sultan Za:nu-l-abidiii 's expedition lo Ladakh look place during the latter part of his reign, and perhaps Bum Ma was compelled to marry a Mohammedan lady. Of this Expedition the following is said; Zainit-1-abiihn. King of Kashmir, invaded Gogga-dexha (probably Ouge) and saved a golden image of Buddha from the hands °f the Mohammedans this own soldiers?) in &haya-rfe>ria (Probably lhe village of Sheh), Then he took the town of Kuluta (Kula) (Kulu). 82 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET the sword "killer of the red lightning flame"; the "black devil knife." Besides these, fifteen turquoises of great value were brought, and twenty saddles]. Lodros chog ldan's reign seems to have lasted long; for when the blow against the dynasty was struck it did not come from Dragspa's son, Bhara. but from his grandson, Bhagan. [Lha chen Bhagan, about 1470-1500. He and the people of Sheh (a village eight miles south-southeast of Leh, on the Indus), having formed an alliance, deposed and subjected the sons of the King of Leh, Lodros chog Idan, and his two brothers.] Thus the kingdom of Lodros chog Idan, which had nothing to fear from external enemies, became an easy prey to its internal foes, as soon as they managed to bring the greater weight of power on their side. What was the lot of the last members of the old dynasty is not stated. Bhagan is the founder of the second, or Namgyal, dynasty, which lasted down to the end of the empire. He called his two sons Namgyal, or "perfect victors," and the word Namgyal, combined with other names, is found in the names of all his descendants.1 [This king was very fond of fighting] 1 It seems to have been a general custom in Tibet to use certain names as dynastícai names. Thus the word tsart. or tsanpo is found in a great number of names of the ancient Central Tibetan dynasty, and the words Lha chen, great god, were combined with most names of the first Western Tibetan dynasty. As, however, the second dynasty descended from the first, the name of Lha chen was added, at pleasure, to the names ot many of its members. THE DAYS OF TSONGKAPA 83 is said Bhagan; but we do not hear of any more of his wars. [Lhawang namgyal (Lha dbang mam rgyal) and Trashi (bKrashis) namgyal, about 1500-1530. The bad example set by their father showed its influence on the sons. Once more the younger brother's ambition strove after the crown. The brothers are characterised as follows : Lhawang had great bodily strength and was clever at any kind of sport; but Trashi was very crafty. To attain his aim, Trashi caused his elder brother's eyes to be plucked out. Then he sent him Lingshed on the borders of Zangskar-] But then a strange circumstance which I&K Ladakhis regard as the judgment of heaven occurred : Trashi remained without children and there was great danger [that the dynasty would die out. Therefore Trashi gave his blind brother a wife]. From a votive tablet at Tingmogang we learn that Lhawang outtived Trashi, and that there was some glory about his old days. For after Trashi had died, the new king, Lhawang's son, took his father back to the capital (Tingmogang in those days), and Wind Lhawang received full honours as "father-king." [The first thing the crafty Trashi had to do was to conquer once more the whole country and subdue the vassal-chiefs. As he also conquered Droshod, he prepared the way for the conquests of the next king, under whom trie Western Tibetan kingdom reached its greatest extension. His principal spoils were ponies, 84 A HISTORY OP WESTERN TIBET of which he brought great quantities to Ladakh. He then built the first royal palace at Leh, on the top of the Namgyaltsemo hill, and below it the hamlet öf Chum.] The greater part of this palace is now in ruins, but some of its ancienl walls were used when thŕ present monastery on the top of that hill was built. Also some of the watch-towers which were built in connection with the palace still remain. [He also erected a temple dedicated to the lords of the four quarters on the same hill, and thus obtained power over the demon that hill, and thus obtained power over the demon that turns back hostile armies. That power he had acquired in the nick of time, for just then an army of Turks invaded the country. He fought against them and killed many; and, apparently, as a thank-offering, the corpses of the Turks were placed under the images of the lords of the four quarters.] After that Trashr thought it advisable to rum his thoughts towards religion; for he was, not without reason, afraid that his stock of accumulated merity might be rather small. But his religion was not of the reformed class; the craftier, the better. Therefore, [according to the advice of the great Lama Ldanma of Drikhung in Tibet, he built a monastery of the red sect at Piang, which is one of the most imposing buildings in the country. At the spot where this Lamasery is seen for the first time (probably coming from Leh), he placed a long pray er-flag. Whosoever, whether thief or liar, in short anyone guilty of offence THE DAYS OF TSONGKAPA 85 against the king's palace or life, if he escaped to this spot, should be rid of his crime. He made the rule regarding the number of children that were to be sent by every village to become Lamas]. According to it, every family of more than one or two male children had to give up one, not the eldest, however, to be made a Lama. Now that this rule is no longer compulsory, there has been a great falling off in the number of Lamas. [Finally, Trashi made the usual offerings of goldwater (for writing books with gold characters), prayerflags, cushions, tea, etc., to the most famous Central Tibetan monasteries, and caused a number Of religious books, among them the Encyclopedia, to be copied. He even erected many chortens], but it is not stated which they are. [Tsewang namgyal I. (Thse dbang), about 1530-1560. TJIind King Lhawang had three sons : Tsewang namgyal, Namgyal gonpo, and Jamyang namgyai. They all grew very tall in stature; they grew taller in a montn than others grow in a year; and they grew taller in a day than others grow in a month.] This passage sounds exactly as if it had been taken from the Kesar saga. Tsewang ascended the throne without having to be afraid of a pretender. It was as if the time of the civil wars was now coming to an end. [When quite a young man, Tsewang had to go to war, because •he vassal-chiefs believed they had got another chance of making themselves free. However, they were all 86 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET subdued, and under him the Western Tibetan empire reached its greatest extension. In the south the chiefs of Kuiu were made to feel the weight of his arm:1 he even conquered a portion of Baltistan. To end the continual warfare against the vassal-chiefs, he brought the rulers of all the conquered districts with him as hostages, and placed his own representatives in their castles. He also said he would make war against the Turks, north of Ladakh; but the people of the frontier province Nubra, who were afraid of harm being done to the trade to Yarkand, petitioned him to abstain from that war, and he desisted. The tribute which came to Ladakh in his days was very great. Again we are told what was received from Guge : 900 grammes of gold annually. From Rutog came 780 grammes of gold annually, and in addition 100 three years' sheep, one riding-horse, ten tanned skin-bags, and the proceeds from the royal domains near Rutog.] Tsewang seems to have been a really ingenious man. To carry on his campaigns, roads and bridges were needed, and two records of road-building under him have been discovered, one on the road to Baltistan, near the Hanu gorge, the other on the way to Zangskar, at Hunupata. Tsewang wished to keep the goodwill of the people, which he was in danger of losing if he charged them with the construction of the bridge at Hunupata as pail of the ordinary 1 The conquest of Kulu included thai of Lahoul, which is mentioned in the chronicles of Lahoul. THE DAYS OF TSONGKAPA 87 forced labour system. He therefore proclaimed that the building of the bridge was a means for everybody to accumulate religious merit, and that the names of all those who had some share in the work would be embodied in the inscription. Through this arrangement he made certain of the goodwill of the people, and at the same time got the bridge. The minister who superintended the work was Bumbha Ide, and in a popular song we are told he made liberal use of the cane. In the song old Bumbha is teased by the people, who are no more afraid of him. Tsewang belongs to the popular kings whose names are not yet forgotten. His nephew Sengge amgyal built the Alchi bridge several years later, ccording to the same system. To do also something in the cause of religion sewang planned the erection of a college on the amgyatfsemo hill, because his ancestors had not ucceeded in making this hill a place of pilgrimage, Ithough they had placed the bones of Buddha in :s elephant incarnation on the top of the hill. But, his work on earth was finished, he died]. This chapter has shown us that, m spite of old d reformed Buddhism, most of the Western Tibetan ings had their minds directed to the things of this orld. That also other people were not much different S shown by Ladakhi Songs, No. VI. The high ones live in high places. Into all the heights of the sky. Besides the king of birds, none flics. A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET During' the three summer months Whatever can bloom, blooms. Except in the three summer months, Oh, there are no flowers. Besides this one lifetime 1 shall not belong to my mother. In this one lifetime Whatever can he happy, is happy. Enjoy this one lifetime As ever you can enjoy it. VIII THE TME OF THE BALT] WARS, ABOUT 1560-1640 The population of Baltistan, as well as that of the rest of Western Tibet, consists of Aryan and Tibetan elements; but, as has been supposed by several writers, in Baltistan the Dard element is somewhat stronger than in other parts of the country, and this may account for certain superiorities in the character of the Baitis. The Balti is, as history proves, rather braver than the average Western Tibetan; he is quicker in adopting new methods and altogether more aiert. The last we had heard of the Baitis was their brave resistance against the Chinese conquerors, in the eighth century. The tenth century brought the conquest of practically the whole of Western Tibet by Nvima gon, and it is at least probable that in those wars Baltistan was also concerned, although »Sthing is said in the Tibetan chronicles. As we know from ancient inscriptions and sculptures, the religion of the Baitis was a Tibetan form of Buddhism, and the Tibetan alphabet was at least partly known, Besides this the Baitis pride themselves also on having an ancient alphabet running from righl to left. 90 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET The Baltis apparently never had a king over themselves who was the undisputed master of the whole country; they had magspons or dukes instead, who took a leading part only in time of war. But for periods a certain famous magspon seems to have had the commond over the united forces of all Baltistan. The Baltis were the first Western Tibetans who became Mussulmans. Although we have no definite record to go by, Cunningham makes it probable that the change of religion took place some time about 1400. His method is the following : Cunningham collected the pedigrees of six magspon families of Baltistan and compared them with each other. None of them is of very great historical value, as the magspons, on their becoming Mohammedans, ignored their origin from Tibetan or Dard Buddhist ancestors, and fabricated new pedigrees with as many Mussulman names in them as possible. The most important and probably most ancient magspon family was that of Kapulu, and its fabricated pedigree of sixty-seven members (in 1830) starts with a Sultan Sikander, after whom the Sultans Ibrahim and Ishak are placed. The fact that Sikander is placed at the head of this pedigree makes Cunningham suspect that the introduction of Mohammedanism into Baltistan may have taken place about the time of Sikander, the Iconoclast, who reigned in Kashmir about 1380-1400. Jamyang namgyal, about 1560-1590. Tsewang had died unexpectedly, without leavine any children, and THE TIME OF THE BALTI WARS 91 therefore one of his younger brothers had to take up the reins of government- Why Namgyal gonpo, who was the next, did not become king, is not stated. We are simpiy told that Jamyang reigned. Unfortunately, all the vassal-kings whom Tsewang had carefully brought to Leh had found an opportunity to escape, and [they all lifted up their heads]. Thus the first task Jamyang had to master was to fight them all, one after another. He turned his attention first of all to Purig. In this country great changes were taking place, as the two chiefs of that country, the Princes of Chigtan and Kartse, had adopted Mohammedanism and styled themselves Sultans. According to Chigtan traditions, Tsering malik, who then reigned, was the first Mohammedan chief of that part of Purig. It is quite possible that these two princes embraced Mohammedanism only to alienate their subjects from the rest of the Ladakhis, whose suzerainty had always been unpleasant to them. Fortunately for Jamyang. the two new Sultans quarrelled with one another, and Jamyang decided to go to the assistance of Tsering malik of Chigtan. Popular tradition has the following about the beginning of this campaign : "It was late in the year when the Ladakhi army was on the point of starting, and it was not considered lucky to start before having celebrated the New Year's festival. However, to wait for the Tibetan New Year would bave meant a delay of fwo months, Therefore 92 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Jamyang, who was not particularly energetic in other respects, had energy enough to decide that this year the New Year's festival was to be celebrated two months before it actually fell. Ever since. New Year has been celebrated about two months earlier in Ladakh than in Central Tibet." In spite of these measures to hasten his campaign, jamyang started on it too late, The whole business looks rather like a trap into which he was enticed, For the Baltis, who had not yet forgotten Tsewang's inroads, were only waiting for an opportunity to pay off this old debt. [Ali Mir, the Duke of Kapulu, had united under his sway the forces of all Balttstan. and as soon as the Ladakh army had crossed the passes towards Purig the Balti forces broke forth The armies met; but by dint of stratagem, ever putting off fighting from one day to the next, A!i Msr succeeded in holding the Ladakhis on, until all the passes and valleys were blocked with snow, and the king with his array, wherever they went, were compelled to surrender] But the snow apparently formed no obstacle to the Baltis, for [all Ladakh was soon overrun by the Baltis, who burnt all the religious books with fire, threw others into the water. and destroyed all the colleges; whereupon they returned to their own country]. In short, they behaved like true Mohammedans and iconoclasts. They had some time before cleared their own country of idols and Buddhist remains, and were now enjoying the same sport in Ladakh. THE TIME OF THE BALTI WARS 93 Truly it may be said of Ladakh that [the time had now come when the period of darkness should supervene, the period when royal supremacy should well-nigh be destroyed], and the proverb "At the tricks of the plucky Balti the heart of the timid Ladakhi is lost," was probably coined in those days. Practically, the Western Tibetan kingdom had come to an end. The king was Ali Mir's prisoner, and the army was annihilated. Just then [it pleased Ah Mir Sher Khan, as his full name was, to give his daughter, Gyal Katun by name, to Jamyang namgyal, to be his wife]. Although the lady was certainly very beautiful, the marriage had its taste of bittemess, for Jamyang was obliged to make Gyal Katun his first wife, and to disinherit the sons who had been bom by his old queen. Still, the Lamas knew how to make matters more pleasant. They found out that [Katun was an incarnation of the White Tlra]. Who would not give up any woman for that distinguished lady? it was rather startling that the White Tärä should have been chosen the body of a Mohammedan girl for an incarnation; but women are capricious, and the white Tärä is quite capable of belong re-born sometime as a Papuan lady. Ali Mir's principal object in marrying Jamyang to his daughter was, as I suppose, to draw him quietly over to Mohammedanism, and it is surprising that 'his did not happen after all. On a rock at Mukbe is carved a weeding congratulation of Jamyang and his new queen. Soon 94 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET after the wedding Ah Mir had a remarkable dream which proved to be of the greatest importance of his son-in-law. [Now, after Ali Mir had prepared a feast for all the soldiers, and Gyal Katun had put on all her jewels, he invited Jamyang namgya! to mount the throne, and then said : "Yesterday I dreamt I saw a lion emerging from the river in front of the palace and jumping at Gyal Katun; he disappeared into her body. At the very same time also Gyal Katun conceived, Now it is certain she will give birth to a male child, whose name ye shall call Sengge namgyal (lion, conqueror of all)." Having said this, he gave the king leave to return home with the army of Ladakh, and to resume his royal functions.! Thus the Ladakhi empire was saved, but its size was now smaller than it had ever been, and as after his sad experiences the king did not feel inclined to fight once more against the vassal princes, he called his own only the country from Purig (Purig apparently not included) to Drangtse, near the Panggong Lake. Although his misfortune was due to the strategic superiority of a Mussulman king, Jamyang decided to do all in his power to strengthen the much shaken Buddism of Ladakh [He said : "1 will employ any means that may serve towards the propagation of the religion of Buddha and make it spread. But, as the religion of Buddha for its propagation is entirely dependent on ihc people. I will, on my part, relieve them from taxation and treat them like my own THE TIME OF THE BALT1 WARS 95 children." Having thus resolved, he equalised rich and poor three times.] It is a pity we are not told how the rich liked this proceeding. Purig, however, could not be regained for Buddhism, for the two new Sultans made use of their independence, and Mohammedanism became their state religion. Still, in the territory of the Purig Sultans of Chigtan, the progress of Mohammedanism was remarkably slow, and even nowadays a traveller to this district can make interesting observations with regard to the half-Lamaist kind of Mohammedanism prevailing there. The old Onpos, or astrologers, find it still easy to make a living, and the once famous monastery of Chigtan is visited annually by large crowds who deposit there flower-offerings, as had been the custom, in Buddhist times. On account of this attachment of the people to the monastery, the monks did not desert it at once, and the last Buddhist monk, called Gergan (dGe rgan) Tsering, left the place about 1860, I have met oeople who had seen him. This old monastery, as well as the imposing castle of the chiefs of Chigtan, are well worth a visit. The people of Tagmachig, who were subject to these chiefs, d;d not li/fe the change of religion, and, as their now lost inscription is said to have told, they went to the Ladakhi king, Jamyang's successor, and asked him to allow them to become his subjects. They were accepted, and remained Buddhists. To set an example to his subjects, jamyang sent a deputation with costly presents to the principal 96 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Central Tibetan monasteries, and the sons who were bom by his old, now deposed, queen, had to escort them and later on to act as messengers to a high Lama. This was a convenient way to get rid of them. One of them, Ngag wang namgyal, became the principal Lama of Lahoul. [After he had ordered a number of Lamaist books to be copied in gold, silver, and copper, he would have much liked to rebuild and present anew whatsoever had been destroyed by the BaStis; but, his life being short, he died before he had been able to accomplish his purpose.] The best known ruins of the Balfi wars are : the Nyizlapug monastery at Saspola; the Kaoche monastery at Spitug; and the Lingshed castle and monastery.1 Sengge namgyal, about 1590-1620. He was the son of Jamyang and Katun, and had inherited the warlike spirit of his grandfather, Ah Mir. [From his childhood he was very strong, and clever at wrestling, running, jumping, shooting with bow and arrow as well as matchlock, and riding. In any kind of sport he was to be compared with Prince Siddhärta Gautama of olden times. 1 According to Cunningham, during the attempts to restrengfhen Buddhism in Ladakh. the colossal stone Maitreya at Mulbe is said to have been probably erected. This is quite improbable, as such an event would certainly be mentioned in the chronicles. Besides, the custom of erecting stone images is very much older. Judging from the few dateable ones, we may say that not many were erected after 1000 A. D The Mulbe image was probably carved by one of the Pung chiefs dtiring their first time of independence. THE TIME OF THE BALTI WARS 97 He was married to a Rubshu princess, called Skal Zang], and this is one of the few queens who have acquired some real fame. On almost all of the many inscriptions of the time of this king we find the queen mentioned and praised, and also their children were apparently general favourites. In spite of his Mohammedan mother, this king does not appear to have had any liking for Mohammedanism, and Buddhism was strengthened in the crown provinces more than had been the case for some time. This was in particular the work of the great Lama [Stag tsang ras chen, whom Sengge namgyal had invited to Ladakh. This great Buddha had visited Hindustan, Urgyan (Udyäna), and Kashmir, and had seen all the eighty saints face to face]. This great Lama, whose name is still in the people's mouth, is said to be the author of the well-known book of travel called The Journey to Skambhala. and he is either the inventor of the mani-walls or the introducer of them to Ladakh. For some time I made the maniwalis my special field of research, and have read the votive tablets of a great number of them, but have not found a single wall that was erected before the time of Sengge namgyal. Tnere is a special kind of them, "two-storied" type, which dates almost exclusively from the time of this king. The "two-storied" kind has a narrower upper orey than the lower one, and therefore somewhat sembles a damaged row of 10S chortens, as were uilt in earlier times. In fact, several rows of chortens 98 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET seem to have been turned into the two-storied type of mani-wall. There is one of this kind at Kalatse. But the one-storied, and more common, type of mani-wall came up already under this king. Such a wall with an inscription, mentioning Sengge namgyal, 1 have discovered at Lingshed, and the large mani-walls outside Basgo are said by popular tradition to have been erected by Stag tsang ras chen. Stag means tiger, and sengge, lion, and the fame of the "tiger-Lama" and the "lion-king" are still remembered, and the clironicles have the following passage on the two : [The king governed over all his dominions according to the ten virtues, and thus it came to pass concerning the kingdom of this world that the king was like the lion, and the Lama like the tiger, and their united fame encompassed the face of the earth as "the lord and the Lama," "sun and moon," a pair]. Sengge namgyal twice went to war, both times to the east. Purig and Bakistan he left undisturbed. Still, as we find from an inscription by him at Karbu, during his reign this part of Purig seems to have been considered his own. His son had to re-conquer it. The people of Tagma-chig assert that their lost inscription spoke of an expedition of Sengge namgyal against Baltistan. But they are probably mistaken Cunningham says that Sengge namgyal beat the BalLis with great slaughter at Karbu. But, as he also erroneously places the battle of ííasgo (see below) under Deldan, instead of Ddegs. it is very probable that also in this case he mixes up Sengge's reign with that of his son Deldan. THE TIME OF THE BAU"I WAR.S 99 [When yet a youth, he made war against the back steppes of Guge to re-conquer that lost province for his kingdom, and carried away ponies, yaks, goats, and sheep, even so far as from the northern slopes of Kailasa, and indeed from everywhere on earth. He made all Ladakh to be full of yaks and sheep. Some time later he made war against the central provinces of Guge also. When he was old, he bethought himself : "My uncle Tsewang namgyal certainly did rule over all the country as far as Ngamring in the east; but he did not live long, and during the reign of my father all the vassal-princes again rose and made themselves independent." So he again went to war, and came as far as Ngamring (only seven marches from Shigartse); but at Shirikarmo his army was routed. This place is situated on the right bank of the Charta River; and, as K. Marx observes, the difficulty of crossing the river may to some extent account for the defeat of the Ladakhi army. Upon this, there arrived an ambassador from Tibet, and it was agreed that the frontier should remain as before, and that Sengge namgyaľs dominion should include all the country up to Ustsang, up to about the Charta River. On his return journey the king died at Hanle.] Before this campaign Sengge namgyal had entered. in co-operation with the Lama, on a great scheme of grand building enterprises, many of which were finished long after his lime by his son. The best known of these buildings is the Leh castle, above 100 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET the city, a huge building of nine stories which was completed ill about three years. Another remarkable building is the Maitreya monastery at Basgo, above the ruins of the ancient fort. It still contains the statue of Maitreya of clay, copper and gilt, as big as he would be in his eightieth year, i.e. three stories high. More the work of the "tiger-Lama" than of the king are the four great Lamaseries which were erected at Hemis, Chemre, Trashisgang (nowadays in Tibet proper, beyond the frontier), and Hanle. Especially the Hemis monastery has become famous on account of the devil-dances which take place there every year in summer. Also a wooden bridge across the Indus was constructed under Sengge namgyal, at Alchi, according to an inscription. [That King Sengge did not forget to have the Encyclopaedia and many other books copied in copper, silver, and gold; and that costly offerings of silk, gold, silver, corals, pearls, amber, etc., were sent to the Central Tibetan monasteries for the spiritual welfare of his father and Mussulman mother, can well be imagined. But the best bargain was made by "the tiger-Lama," who received 100 ponies, 100 yaks, 1000 sheep, 1000 rupees, 300 grammes of gold, 3000 loads of grain, 1 string of pearls, 1 string of coral beads, 1 string of turquoise beads, 25 matchlocks, 25 spears, 25 swords, 15 coats-of-mail, 25 pieces of silk, 10 pieces of brocade, 25 pieces of gauze, 25 pieces of broad gauze for scarfs of blessing, and other presents.] THE TIME OF THE BALM WARS 101 The foiTn of religion of this king and his great Lama was that of the red sect, and all the monasteries built by them belong to Lamas of that persuasion. This form of religion has always shown a resemblance lo Sivaism, and from that the words [he introduced the great deities of all Hindustan] become intelligible. Another not quite clear passage seems to mean that people were specially allowed to kill game, which would also imply a lax form of Buddhism. Deldan namgyal, about 1620-1640, who became king after his father,, was the eldest of Sengge namgyaľs three sons. His two brothers became vassal-kings under him. [Indra Bodhi namgyal, who had entered the clerical career as one of Stagtsang raschen's principal discipies, and acted as superintendent at the erection of the Hemis and Cheme Lamaseries, became ruler of Guge; and Dechog namgyal, the youngest, was made vassal king of Zangskar and Spiti.j From this it appears that the ancient line of the Zangskar kings had come to an end. When Deldan ascended the throne, his kingdom reached only from Purig to the Matyum Pass, but it was his ambition to restore the lost prestige of the Ladakhi army and to bring the rulers of Purig ônce more under his rule, besides avenging his family on the Baltis. These plans were not executed until he had reached old age, but they were eventually, and the Ladakhi kingdom attained to about the same fame and power under him as it had during its best 102 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET times. As the many inscriptions prove, Deldan was also a very popular king, and if what we know about the lost inscription at Kalatse is true, he was not only a wise organiser, but also a ruler who took an interest in the welfare of his subjects. The inscription tells of his regulating the irrigation water in that village. [Deldan did not show the same building activity as his father. He built only an Assembly Hall at Leh and the longest mani-wall in the country. It is the one at the Tewar Gorge, and is about 850 paces long. At the upper end there is a high chorten of the Namgyal type (with round steps), and at the lower end a high chorten of die Jangchub type (with square steps). This was built for the spiritual welfare of his mother; and for that of his father he erected at Sheh an image of Buddha, of clay, copper and gilt, three stories high. Also a chorten, five stories high, was reared there. Another image of Buddha, two stories high, was constructed at the Leh palace, and one of Avalokitesvara, of the same height, probably at the Assembly Hall, where is also the silver chorten made by him, which is of the same height. I believe that most of Deldan's structures are still in existence. At each of the principal monasteries were placed 108 Lamas, who had to perform the one hundred millions of Om mani padnte hum incantations once a year. Then he appointed his minister, Shakya gyatso, Field-Marshal. In the water-ox year the Ladakh army THE TIME Of THÉ BALTI WARS 103 ok the field, and marched to Purig to re-conquer is lost province. The first territory they invaded was that of the Tri Sultan of Kartse, who was then independent king over the country from Karbu to Dras. Many men and women of Karbu they carried away captive, and the castles of Henasku and Stagtse were reduced and brought into subjection. Although the Tri Sultan had not yet been attacked in his capital, the army now invaded the territory of the other ruler of Purig. the Purig Sultan of Chigtan, and his strongest castles, Chigtan and Shagkar, were taken. When there was nothing more to fear from that side, the Ladakh Field-Marshal marched against the three strongest castles of the Tri Sultan. The first was Sod, a little north of Kargil, and after it had been taken the harvest of the fields in the vicinity was gathered in. The other two castles, Sumtang and Kartse, were then attacked and taken, and the Tn Sultan himself became a prisoner, He was transported to Leh. In the wood-tiger year the Ladakh army marched against Baitistan. and conquered the villages Chorbar and Tortsekar. Over these districts were placed chieftains of the Ladakhis' choosing. The Duke of Škardo and all the Baltis were unanimous in their complaints to the Nawab (probably of Kashmir) of these high-handed proceedings. The Nawab induced the Turks to invade Ladakh, and an army of Turks, numbering 200,000 (probably 20,000), arrived at Pasan. But the minister Drug namgyal of Ladakh fought a battle against them and killed many Turks. 104 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET They took away their flags and kettledrums, and thus gained a complete victory over the enemy.] During the days of Deldan the mission of the Jesuit Andrada to Tsaparang in Guge seems to have taken place. These glorious wars brought the Western Tibetan empire once more to the respected position it had once occupied. There are many popular songs which tell of wars against the Baltis, but it is very difficult to assign to them their proper place in history. Here are two specimens of them. The first may go back to the Buddhist times of Baltistan. At the Lake Mondur. Stobsyabgopa appears and shows his strategy. The god-like force of Škardo cast their lhassos of steel. They pay back to the god-like army of Ladakh what is their due. They revenge their fathers and forefathers on them. The children of the Lord of Shigar gain a glorious victoty. The lord resides at the flower-castle of Sating. God is gracious to thee this summer! The king resides at the flower-castle of Sating. God is giving success to thee this summer! Thou turnest back the Turk army of Škardo on the Daltong Pass. God is gracious to thee this summer! Thou dictatest a treaty to them, to last longer than a lifetime. Lightning flashes out of King Deldan namgyal's sword.1 The original has Deskyong namgyal, which is a mistake, as Deskyong did not cany on any wars. IX THE GREAT MONGOL WAR, ABOUT 1646, 1647 During the time from 1643-1716 a.D., Central Tibet was a dependency of Mongolia. The reason why the Mongolians had become masters of the country was the severe quarrels between the yellow-cap Lamas and the red-cap Lamas. A detailed account of these quarrels does not belong to the domain of Western Tibetan history, because in this country the two sects have always lived in peace with each other. Whoever is interested in these fights for supremacy may look them up in a Central Tibetan history. Now it was the red-cap sect, and soon after the yellow-cap sect, who asked the Mongolians to come to their support, and the result of the long wars was that the Mongol Gushri Khan seized the whole country and became king of united Mongolia and Tibet. He had fought for the cause of the yellow church, and made that church supreme in all his dominions. It would have been very natural, if the thought had arisen in the minds of these great Mongol-Tibetan 106 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET rulers, to add also the Western Tibetan empire to their dominions, and thus to become masters of the whole Lamaist world. But the thought does not appear to have occurred to them before war was declared from the Ladakhi side. The chronicles give the following reason for the beginning of hostilities. [At the time of Delegs namgyal, about 1640-1680, Deldans's son, the Bhutan state had a quarrel with the Tibeto-Mongolian monarchy. Now, as the Pope of Bhutan was the patron Lama of the King of Ladakh, the latter sent a letter to Tibet, saying that he was prepared to take up his quarrel. The Tibetans, when hearing of this, instead of entering into any negotiations, raised an army at once, to prevent the Ladakhis from overrunning their country. Magic calculations pointed to a Mongol Lama called Tsang, who was at the time residing at Galdau, as the destined leader. He, accordingly, turned layman, and, heading the Mogol tribe and a powerful army of Tibetans, soon reached Ladakh. At the beginning of active warfare it came to an engagement at Zhamarting, near the Panggong lake. The Ladakhis were driven back, and in time the Mongol army arrived at Basgo.j One of the great mistakes of Delegs was that he did not go to war himself, but contented himself with sending his general He may have thought that in this he was following the example of his father, but it looks rather as if he had been afraid of the battle-field. Now he did not even remain at the THE GREAT MONGAL WARS 107 splendidly fortified Basgo, where the greater portion of the Ladakhi army found shelter, but fled to the fortress of Tingmogang, about thirty miles further west. The fortress of Basgo seems to have had one great advantage, in a continual water-supply. None of the Western Tibetan fastnesses was in danger of running short of grain; for all these castles had tremendous storehouses of grain, which look like very deep, round masonry wells. They were not only filled when the enemy was before the doors; but it was a custom to throw some of the harvest into these pits every year, and thus the grain was ready at hand when the enemy arrived. In the storehouse at Wanla there is still some of this old grain left. Because the castles were so well provided, [the Ladakhi army heid its own for three years.1 But they were unabie to drive the Mongol army back again]. And, as popular tradition knows, the Mongols went on raiding expeditions all over the country. When the difficulties of Delegs had reached their highest point, [he dispatched a messenge to the Nawab of Kashmir], to come to his assistance. In those days Kashmir was a province of the great Mogul empire of India, and as the Nawab was one of the Mogul's officers, he sent Delegs' letter on to Delhi. In this manner the history of Ladakh became connected with Mogul history, which has the great advantage that, with regard to this war, we have the privilege of consulting Mogul historians, in particular Mir Izzet Six months, according to other historians. 108 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Ullah (1812), cited by Cunningham and Berttier, the friend of Aurangzib, who has preserved the date of the battle of Basgo. At this time the bigoted Shah Jahan sat on the throne of the Moguls, and it looks very much like him to promise his assistance only on one chief condition, viz. that the Ladakhi king was to become a Mussulman in acknowledgment of it. There were several conditions of minor importance besides, which will be mentioned below, As Delegs was in a mood to promise anything, an army of 600,000 warriors, as the Mogul historians say, was dispatched under Nawab Fateh Khan and five other officers. The number of 600,000 is quite an impossibility. Never could such a host be fed in a barren country like Ladakh. Cunningham proposes to say 6000 instead. This army crossed the Indus at Kalatse on two wooden bridges, and advanced to Basgo. The Mongol army left the fortress and arranged itself in battle-order on the Jargyal plain between Basgo and Nyenio. [There a battle ensued. The Mongol army was routed, they left behind them a large quantity of armour, bows and arrows, and their rout continued until they reached Spitug. Even there they did not make a long halt, but continued their flight until they came to Trashisgang, beyond the Paggong lake. Unfortunately for Delegs, they did not flee any farther. But at Trashisgang they built a fort, shut it in with a wall and surrounded it with water.] After the Mogul army had rendered this great THE GREAT MONGAL WARS 109 service to Delegs, he left Tingmogang and went to meet the Nawab, to express his very sincere thanks. But, alas, this was not considered sufficient, and the Navvab presented a bill to Delegs, which contained the following items : 1. Delegs was to become a Mussulman and to accept the new name Akabal (or Akabat?) Mahmud Khan. This was not so very easy, considering the great power Buddhism had acquired in Ladakh under his father and grandfather, and the vengeance of the Lamas was certain to be cruel. As the news about Delegs' change of religion is very contradictory, I will simply state what we hear about it. The Mussulman historians speak of it quite in the affirmative, and therefore Cunningham is of opinion that the least we can accept is that Delegs Was taken to the Nawab's camp, where he had to repeat the words of the Mohammedan creed as they were dictated to him. The Tibetan historians and the Lamas pretend to know nothing of a Mohammedan confession, and strictly deny such an occurrence. Still, I believe that the Mogul historians are right, ^nd the Lamas even betray themselves. As we have seen in the case of Rinchen Bhoti, it is the Lamas' policy to ignore, if possible, even the name of a king who was unfaithful to Buddhism. This they seem *° have tried in the case of Delegs, as a study of we votive inscriptions of Ladakh reveals. Votive 'Oscnptions of ordinary people, in which, besides the 110 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET name of the sacnficer, the king's name, with patriotic good wishes, is given, are very frequent with reference to Deldan namgyal, Delegs' father, and Nyima namgyal, Delegs' son. But up to the present, I have not found a single votive tablet in which mention was made of "King" Delegs. The name Delegs namgyal occurs only on. some of Deldan's tablets, where he is mentioned as Deldan's son. That there are no tablets in existence referring to Delegs' government, makes mc believe that the Lamas either destroyed them all or forbade the people of mention this king on their tablets. A very similar case is the following : The Ladakh chronicles speak of five sons of King Delegs, but give the names of only four of them. The name of the fifth, Jigpal namgyal, was crossed out, because he had to be sacrificed to Mohammedanism for the benefit of the whole country. 2. To make certain of Delegs' change of religion, [his wife and his son Jigpal—aJigs dpal—(the chronicles speak of "children"; perhaps some daughters were included) had to go to Kashmir, to stay there as hostages for three years]. As far as we know, they never came back to Ladakh. They had to become thorough Mussulmans. 3. To make Delegs' new name known to all the world, a coin, containing it in its legend, was to be struck for Ladakh in Kashmir. This coin was called jaw (jau means "a little tea"), the name being taken from a similar Central Tibetan coin. This fan THE GREAT MONGAL WARS 111 is the first and only coin which the Western Tibetan empire has ever had. Trade was mostly carried on by barter only, the few coins which were occasionally used coming from the neighbouring districts. Cunningham, who examined the jau closely, gives the following reading of its legend : Obverse : Mahmud Shah. Reverse : Butan (Tibet) Zarb (struck) sanat 878 (in the year 878). 4. Every encouragement was to be given to Mohammedanism in Ladakh, and a mosque erected at Leh, The great mosque which is now found at the upper end of the bazaar in Leh is not the first erected in Leh. There are two smaller ones which are said to be older. We do not know whether the great Balti village of Chushod near Leh was built after this war, or if the emigration from over-populated Baitistan had taken place already after Alt Mir's victory over the Ladakhis; at any rate, now the time of Mussulman propaganda begins for Ladakh, and on the accompanying map, the inroads of Mohammedanism into our country are shown. 5. Regarding the wool trade. When Kashmir was a province of the Mogul empire, and several Moguls built their beautiful summer residences on the shores of the Kashmiri lakes, great encouragement was given to the Kashmir industry of carpt-weaving. Most of the wool for these carpets came from the higher districts of Western Tibet, and thus the Kashmir industry depended largely on the wool trade with Ladakh.. Delegs had to agree to the following points : 112 A HISTORY OH WESTERN TIBET [The fine wool of Tibet is to be sold to no country but Kashmir. The price shall be about seven battis for two rupees. To carry on the trade, four Kashmiris shall reside at Spitug and do the trading with the Kashmiris of Kashmir; but these four shall not be allowed to go down to Kashmir. On the other hand, no other Kashmiris, besides the four residing at Spitug, shall be allowed to go to the Tibetan highlands to buy the wool from the nomads. 6. A small annual tribute was to be sent to Kashmir, consisting of 18 piebald ponies, 18 pods of musk, and 18 white yak tails. (The latter were probably sold to the Hindus for their temple ritual.) In exchange for these presents, the Nawab offered to send up to Ladakh annually 500 bags of rice, which is a delicacy in Western Tibet]. How glad was Delegs when the Nawab with his large army had left the country! He had just gone, when the Tibeto-Mongoltans, who had been waiting on the Panggong lake, came out of their stronghold and dictated to Delegs what they wished him to agree to. They brought along with them a plenipotentiary of the Supreme Government at Lhasa, called Mipam wangpo,1 and at Tmgmogang the peace negotiations took place. Delegs had to agree to the following points : [1. The boundary between Central Tibet and 1 Ón an inscription at Nyuria, this Lama had the title of viceroy. This shows that the authority of Delegs must have been badlv shaken THE GREAT MONGAL WARS 113 Western Tibet is the Lhari stream, near the Panggong lake. Only in the domain of Menser in Guge may the Ladakhi king be his own master. Delegs protested against this sort of policy, but, apparently, without any effect. And the Lamas knew how to make the loss of the greater portion of his dominions palatable to Delegs. They simply declared it an offering to the religion of Buddha, by saying that the taxes of all those territories were to be used to defray the expenses of the sacrificial lamps and the reading of prayers in Tibet.] Although the name was sweet, the loss was bitter, for it meant the renunciation of the large provinces of Guge, Purang, Lowo, and Rutog: and after the peace of Tmgmogang the history of the "small empire" begins, which lasted for a century and a half longer. [2. Trade regulations with Lhasa. The King of Ladakh shall send once in three years a mission conveying presents to the clergy of Tibet. As regards Presents to ordinary Lamas, the quantity is not fixed, "°t to the Dalai Lama's steward should be given thirty grammes of gold, ten weights of scent, six P^ees of calico, and one piece of soft cotton cloth, the members of the mission shall receive daily rations ^d fodder for their animals free during their sojourn '"Tibet. On the other hand, the Government trader j* Tibet shall come every year with 200 loads of "tck-tea, and nowhere but from Ladakh shall ^tanguiar tea-bricks be sent across the frontier.] AH these trade regulations are in force to this 114 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET day; only a few slight alterations in favour of Ladakh have been made. Bad as the affair had turned out for Delegs, his case would have been certainly worse, had he not called the Kashmiris to his assistance. In acknowledgment of that, probably, the chronicles conclude the account of him with these words : [The king, indeed, in all his doings had none to surpass him, and State and Church both made progress]. Songs of the Mongol siege of Basgo are well known at Basgo and Nyemo. This is one of them :— Looking towards the east from the city of Basgo, Looking towards the east from the stronghold of Basgo; On the field, called Pangkatse, of the king; On the field, called Pangkatse, of the potentate, There are three thousand five hundred little beds, And three hundred and sixty little stones to regulate the irrigation of them. As far as these fields reached the camp of the Mongol, the bad Hot; As far as that reached the camp of the Mongol, the bad enemy. X THE QUARREL FOR THE SUCCESSION. ABOUT 1680, 1780 Nyima Namcyal, about 1680-1720, the son of Delegs namgyal. This is the first king of the 'Tittle empire," and the king during whose lifetime the quarrel began. His great wisdom is praised in the chronicles in this style : [in accordance with the rule, to act on the principles as described in the biographies of the ancient kings of the faith, he lauded the virtuous and suppressed evil-doers. In pronouncing judgment he never merely followed his own desires, but always, m the first place, consulted his staff-officers. He appointed elders of superior intelligence from every P^ge to assist him. And such as wanted his decision * questions relating to field and house property he "id not leave at the mercy of interlopers or partial advisers. But having instituted the council of state-officers and elders, he introduced the oath on the "ree symbols, and laid down the rule that first the Pnniary origin of any dispute must be traced before 116 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET the verdict was pronounced, and then found out what evidence is to be given. Tins edict surpasses in excellence any of those that were passed by all the dynastic kings of Tibet.] After we have heard so much about Nyima's wisdom in pronouncing judgment, it will be of some interest to observe how a certain single case was decided. A document of such a procedure has been preserved at Kalatse, a translation of which I will now give. From very ancient times the Gongmapa family had held the highest position in the village, the eldest member of it being honoured with the title Wazir. It was apparently King Deldan namgyal who had made Drasichos chieftain of the village, without deposing the old Wazir. The people of Kalatse did not wish to have two superiors, and were in doubts which of the two was the person really to be respected. So King Nyima had to decide who was the true chieftain, and the following edict (on paper) is the document of his procedure : "This is the word of the protector of the cartti, who is rich in power over men, Nyima namgyal. the god. , "it is proclaimed to all under my governnw» in general, and to the elders of Kalatse in particular, as well as to the messengers who are sent up ^ down on errands either of peace or of war : Gang gyatso whose family has been Dragchos at Kaia for three generations, on one occasion had a qua with Dondrub sodnam (the head of the Gongm-r QUARREL FOR THE SUCCESSION 117 family); they came to the court at Leh and quarrelled. The elders of Upper and Lower Ladakh, having carefully listened to the case, cast lots to find exactly the truth, and made the king swear an oath. Gangva gyatso won, and my oath is : I have shown kindness to Gangava gyatso, the Dragchos, from the days of my forefathers, and Dragchos has always done his work in a skilful way. Thus it is suitable for Dragchos to receive : the place of honour at festivals; the ' dish of honour; a share of the game from nine peasants, who must offer it in turns; a share of the harvest of straw and lucerne. As has been the former customs, I swear by the existence of the Namgyal tsemo hill and Yutur (unknown), and have made it clear that Dragchos receives authority as he had before. As my. mercy also extends to letting him rank with the nobility, it is important that you noblemen neither despise him nor give him any commandments, but let him live in peace. Whoever, when seeing this letter, does not heed it, will be sternly brought to judgment. This must be understood by everybody. The petitioner is Sodnam Lundrub. Thus it is written on the 29th of the eighth month of the wood-monkey year (about 1705), at the Leh palace Pobrang tsemo." What is of special interest in this case is that even by this king, who was particularly famous for J"s wisdom in pronouncing judgment, lots were cast, rhat made matters very easy indeed, and we wonder wbat sort of administration of justice may have been lig A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET practised by other kings who were not particularly famous for their wisdom. Only the noblemen were allowed to enter into the presence of the king; other people had to speak to the king through one of them who was called the "petitioner." As is shown by the edict, Dragchos had to get his case stated by a petitioner also. [During the reign of this king the first printing press was established in Ladakh, and after the blocks of six Lamaist books had been engraven, King Nyima distributed sacred Lamaist books among all the laity.] The art of printing had come to Tibet from China, where for many ages whole pages of books had been engraven on wooden tablets, from which they were printed on paper. Nyima's printing press is possibly still in existence. Some books are still printed at one of the temples below the castle. [The most famous structure of King Nyima is a mani-wall at Choglamsa], above the bridge. Although it is considerably long, it is not of such imposing dimensions as the one built by Deldan, [He had also put up a huge prayer-wheel (Mani ten skor) of gold, silver, and copper (probably at Leh), and images of his favourite deity, of gold and silver. The monasteries of Central Tibet as well as of Ladakh received presents from him.] During the reign of Nyima namgya!, in 1715. the Jesuit Desideri passed through Leh on his w to Lhasa. He was the first king, for a long time, QUARREL FOR THE SUCCESSION 119 whom there was no warfare; and of this time of peace the chronicles say : [Amongst all the people there did not occur either strife, or robbery, or theft; it was a life passed in such happiness as that of a child with his fond mother. King Nyima was married twice. His first wife died after she had given birth to a son, Lhachen Deskyong namgyal]. This sad event seems to have made an impression on the people; for the "Song of the girl of Sheh" shows us that people took a particular interest in little Prince Deskyong, and committed him to the care of his guardian deity. [King Nyima's second wife was Zizi katvm of Purig. She bore him a son, Trashi namgyal, and a daughter, Trash i wangmo. When Nyima became old, Deskyong namgyal was appointed king. But Zizi katvm, his step-mother, wanted to get part of the kingdom for her son, Trashi Ipngyal, and, as she had always been kind to Deskyong, she persuaded him easily to give all Purig to Trashi. This was against the wishes of the state officials, who did not like to have a divided empire, ■hey entered a petition that Trashi should either be pde a Lama or live quietly at Tingmogang. When ™e quarrel became acute, old King Nyima seized ™ reins of the government once more and ruled t0r several years.] Deskyong namgyal, about 1720-1740, was ^Patently an utterly insignificant ruler. [With his ät Wife, a princess of Lowo, he did not live in 120 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET peace, until the two separated, on account of incompatibility of temper, soon after a son, Saskyong namgyal, had been bom. Subsequently he married another wife, and a son, Puntsog namgyal, was bom.l The government proper seems to have been in the hands of the queen-mother, Zizi katun, during all this time. Her most famous piece of diplomacy was the assassination of the chief of Kishtawar, who had married her daughter, Trashi wangmo. As might have been expected from the outset, this girl was kept in a zenana. [But when it was known in Ladakh that Trashi wangmo was not allowed to see the light of day, a Ladakhi was ordered to bring her back by fair means or foul. When the girl was being carried off, the chief and queen of Kishtawar, who were both very fond of her, said : "Let us also go to Ladakh!" But Zizi katun gave secret orders to this effect : "If the chieftain of Kishtawar should arrive here without being k:hed in some clever way beforehand, it might injure my son Trashi namgyal's rule over Purig! See about this!" So, without the knowledge of the authorities of Ladakh, a servant of the queen went on this errand, and at a bndge on the frontier, between Kishtawar and Paldar, the servant, approaching the chieftain in the manner of one who has a petition, threw him into the water.] Puntsog namgyal. about 1740-1760. Although he was the second son, he seized the government through the treachery of his mother. His elder brother, QUARREL FOR THE SUCCESSION 121 Saskyong namgyal, was shut up at Hemis as a Lama, much against his own will. Puntsog's realm was very small, as Purig was still in the hands of his uncle Trashi. Trashi brought the whole kingdom into great danger of a war with Kashmir, as he tyrannised not only over his Ladakhi subjects but also the Kashmir traders. As such a war not only endangered Ladakh but Central Tibet as well, the Dalai Lama resolved to regulate the political state of Ladakh, and sent as his plenipotentiary and peace-maker the great Lama Rigdzin tsewang norbu. This Lama was met on his arrival in Ladakh by King Trashi of Purig (probably because this gentleman had not exactly a good conscience), and all the princes and ministers of Ladakh were invited to a great council at the Hanle monastery. All agreed to the decisions and obligations imposed upon them by the "Saviour, the great Rjgdzin." The results arrived at were : [Whatever the number of princes born at Ladakh castle may be, the eldest son only shall reign. The younger ones shall become Lamas at Tngtse, Spitug, and other -onasteries; but there shall not be two kings.] If ese resolutions had been earned into effect, we ould certainly be ready to praise Rigdzin for his poom. But this great saviour had a very human 'de to his character : he did not wish to offend ybody; and although he was able to establish a ;ry useful and sound principle, he was not the person *ct according to it. There were a great number rulers who ought to have been turned out at this 122 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET juncture, but they all remained, and Rigdzin had a word of excuse for each of them. [The King of Zangskar was to remain as before, because he had to protect the frontier against Hindustan. Those members of the royal family who had received the castles of Zangla and Henasku with sixty or eighty peasants attached to them were also to remain as before, because their kingdoms were of little importance.] And uncle Trashi was to remain by all means, probably on account of his age. [Fortunately, Trashi namgyal had no children, and when he died Purig was united with Ladakh. In accordance with the decisions of the council, the son Tsewang namgyal (we are not told whether he was the son of Saskyong or Puntsog) was elected king. Puntsog and his mother equally divided the property in the Leh castle and appropriated it, and poor Saskyong had once more to enter the Hemis monastery]. [Tsewang namgyal II, about 1760-1780. Although by the great Rigdzin's settlement all the noblemen, the council of elders, and the merchants, first of all, but the whole empire as well, were rendered happy and contented], the new king, Tsewang, did not quite justify the amount of trouble the great Rigdzin had taken about his election. Apparently, before the great saviour had left the country, there was considerable danger of w*r breaking out with Kashmir. It was averted only by a miracle. The water-courses below Leh were no regulated, and therefore [the Nawab sent messengers QUARREL FOR THE SUCCESSION 123 with the request that the plain below Leh should be cleared of water. On the occasion when the messengers had their audience, by a miracle tea was poured out from one silver teapot to all the men who took part in the banquet. The messengers believed and went home]. It is a pity we are not told what was the nature of the miracle; whether a little teapot held an enormous quantity, or whether the teapot had not to be lifted but flew about from one cup to the other to pour out the tea. At any rate, the superstitious Kashmiris thought it wisest to leave the Tibetans and their magic powers undisturbed. As soon as the great Lama had left, Tsewang became troublesome, or, as the chronicles say, "the evil one entered his mind."' [Messengers had been sent to Zangla in Zangskar to ask one of the princesses to become Tsewang's wife. They were probably a long time performing the journey, and before they returned Tsewang had fallen in love with a low-caste Bheda woman. The Zangla princess, who arrived soon after, knew well that she had not come to Ladakh to be made a fool of, and returned at once to her home. If the Ladakhis were not quite happy about their low-caste queen, they were even less pleased With Tsewang's further doings, viz. that he had one groom only for each 500 horses, and a lamp in grandest style at night. And when foolish Tsewang "tade the taxes payable three time in one year, a litt1e revolution took place. In the eyes of the Ladakhis "te source of all the offences was the low-caste queen. 124 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET QUARREL FOR THE SUCCESSION She was expelled from the palace, and the minister from the village of Stog, who was guilty in the same affair, had to go too. Then a Purig princess, Bhekyim wangmo, was asked to become queen, to which she agreed.] Looking at the kings of this period, the thought cannot be avoided that the dynasty was on the decline. Not one of the kings of this chapter was great as a warrior, or as a politician, or organiser; they lived debauched lives, and women became occasionally the rulers of the state. Still, judging from the extraordinary multitude of documents on stone, referring to these kings, the people of Ladakh seem to have been wonderfully loyal and devoted. They praise their kings even for deeds of which they were quite innocent. Thus of Tsewang namgyal II, who never engaged in any war, it is said that his sword was "hot on the enemies of the country." A beautiful feeling of loyalty finds expression in the song about little Prince Deskyong, mentioned above, who had never known his own mother {Ladakhi Songs, No. XIV). Wherever oar gracious prince goes. Oh God, protect his life! To Deskyong namgyal, the (future) lord of men Give blessing during his lifetime. The Lama who is loved by the girl, Is beautiful like a picture of the gods in the temple. The Lama who is loved by Zangmo, is beautiful like a picture of the güds in the temple. With pure and holy words Bring offerings to God! With pure and holy words Give alms to the poor! THE SONG OF THE GIRL OF SHEH On the hill in the back there is the chorten of white crystal: In the front there is the lake, blue like a turquoise. On the shoTe flowers are in bloom. They grow in rrty fatherland together with its future. On the shore large yellow Rowers are m bloom. In the castle of Sheh the milk (of abundance) flows. On the high summit there lives. The eloquent god of the summit. X! THE LAST TWO KINGS, ABOUT 1780-1834 Tsewang Nanigyal II, had two sons from Bhekyim wangmo. The name of the eldest was Tsestan namgyai, about 1780-1790; that of the younger one Tsepal (dondrub) namgyai. According to the resolution of the Council .of Hanle, Tsestan was made king, and Tsepal had to enter the Hemis monastery. It appeared as if the dynasty was making a new start; for Tsestan was more of a character than many of the kings before him. The chronicles describe him thus : [His personal appearance was like that of a god. He was diligent, and obtained proficiency in Tibetan grammar and mathematics, Persian letters and speech, Kashmir speech, and other such languages. He also knew well how to govern. He was devout, and knew the duties of kings. Before the enemy he was fearless. His solicitude for the welfare ot his subjects was exceedingly great. Between himsert and others he knew no difference]. Although he had no opportunity to distinguish himself in a great war, he had opportunity to fižPj THE LAST TWO KINGS 127 occasionally on frontier exrJeditions. At Kalatse there is a document in existence, of a few years after ůim, from which we learn that private individuals were at liberty in time of peace to go on raiding expeditions to Baltistan. The document states the number of Baltis killed, and gives the reward {a piece of desert land) which the raider (the Dragchos of Kalatse) received. His ability to govern was evidenced in his regulation of the taxes. [As, thus far, there had been no principle regulating taxes and revenue, he made 3, rule that henceforth taxes should be raised only in accordance with the income, measure for measure. In memory of his father he built the Skyin mani ringmo, the second largest mani-wall in the country, with chortens at either end, of the great Namgyai and Jangchub types.] It resembled very much the long mani-wall built by Deldan namgyai, and is situated a little above Deldan's mani-wall. It stretches from there towards Leh. Tsestan was a great polo-Player. There is a song still known, according to which he used to play on the polo-ground of the Murtse garden, below Leh. Popular tradition says toat once his pony got shy, ran away with him, and tlirew him off In this accident he is said to *ave lost one eye. [The mam-wall was his last work, for in a "C'ghbouring district some "defect" became apparent, ~td in consequence of want of merit in the people liney had1 apparently not prayed Om mani padme 128 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET hums enough) an epidemic of smallpox broke out and Tsestan died in his twenty-fourth year at Leh in the Karzo garden. Then a great Lama of Hemis, who once had received rich presents from the king, performed the funeral rites in grand style.] [Tsestan died without leaving any children, and therefore, his brother Tsepa! namgyal, about 1790-1841, of Hemis, was induced to turn layman and was invested with royal power.] He inherited from his brother no! only the kingdom but also his wife. Lama though he was, he had always been considered second husband to the queen; and, indeed, the Tibetan custom of polyandry makes it very easy for the Lamas to surround themselves with a halo of a pure life and yet to indulge in the pleasures of less holy men. In character Tsepal was the opposite to Tsestan. He loved an easy life, and was lazy in every respect. He loved an easy life, and was lazy in every respect, He never went to battle, although he had plenty of opportunity to do so. [In judgment, he regarded the faces and riches of men.] Besides, he seems to have inherited the taint of madness from his father; for many strange things are told about him. [The private servants in the palacs had to promise daily not to sleep at night. The king also did not sleep at night. He rose when the sun , grew hot. In the morning, when washing his lianost i he required twelve or thirteen basins full of col" j and hot water. When he travelled about in *e| provinces he went at night, and then with la^P J THE LAST TWO KINGS 129 and torches. The King of Zangskar and the Purig kalon (minister) he kept in prison. With the men of the old regime he did not agree. This was not so much due to this extravagance as to the fact that he made the new-fashioned servants that stood before him governors of the palace, and took counsel with them. In spite of this foolish sort of government, for some time the country was in a flourishing state; everybody lived in affluence; and such "works as were all and one on the side of virtue" enjoyed peace and happiness. This blessed state was due to the activity of the powerful minister, Tsewang dondrub, the brother-in-law of the king. But when Tsepal took the privy seal from the minister to his own palace, Tsewang dondrub seems to have been offended, for he disappears from the pages of history.] In the reign of this king falls also Moorcroft's visit to Ladakh, 1820-1822. This event is described Mi the chronicles in this manner : [At that time, having passed through Kulu and Lahoul, the bara Sahib (great Lord), and the chota Sahib (little Lord), with great wealth, came to Leh. They gave all sorts of rich presents to the noblemen of Ladakh and many others. "We must see the king!" they said, and all |hat was said in reply was : "What evil there is 01 Indians one cannot know!" An audience for Insultation was refused for several months, but at *äst they saw the king. They presented a variety " things, but the best were a penknife, scissors, tod a gun. They said : "We have come to see the 130 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET way in which your ministers and people behave, and your majesty's wisdom; and as there is a likelihood of this country being conquered, if we built a tower (fort) here it would prove useful to the king." The king and his ministers, in considering the case, said : "If they build a fort, no one knows what means of doing harm it may be!" and did not allow them to build it. Then they gave the king a letter in a box and said : "Accept this; it may cure the king's mind!" They stayed throughout both summer and winter, and departed. These were the first European sahibs who came]. How much Tsepal must have regretted, about twelve years after, that he had despised the friendship of the English! How useful it would have been to support him against all kinds of external enemies! When it was too late this visit of the sahibs was remembered, and the assistance of the English solicited, as the course of events will show. The principal reason why Tsepal did not accept the assistance of the British was hardly his mistrust, but his extreme laziness, and his desire to remain undisturbed. He had apparently got a liking for the meditative life of the monks, and would have been best pleased had he been left at Hemis. His gross carelessness became most evident when the peop*6 of Kulu and Lahoul, who had once been the subjects of the Ladakhi emperors, came on raiding expedition to his own country. [Thereupon the army of Kulu invaded Spin. and THE LAST TWO KINGS 131 after having destroyed the village, and carried away all the property, they returned home. The Ladakhis petitioned Tsepal that he should wage a war of revenge, but he said : "You have not tried your best!" and punished them. Later on, the people of Kulu and Lahoul conspired against Zangskar, and laid waste the castle of Spadům and the central districts. They stole ponies and yaks and whatever there was of value, and again returned home. But now, under the command of a general of Pafdar, an army, chiefly of Lower Ladakhis (Rastanpas), went against the enemy. All the Lahoul villages from Spadům to Garing (Aring seems to be a mistake) were destroyed. Throughout Lahoul and the central districts (of Kulu) they fought; and although afterwards peace was made, King Tsepal said ; "You Zangskar people have not yet tried your Destľ and punished them. One year later, a Mande and Waran army (from ^ishtawar) came and devastated Upper Zangskar up w_ Dung ring. They burnt the villages with fire' Whatever of wealth and cattle they got they carried "«* with them.] From all these notes it looks as a We Laaakhi kingdom of those days had got quite name its neighbours for being an easy prey to onqUerore. And in course of time ,ts fame nave travelled as far as Jammu. kiniAjí0U§h the land had t0 suffer so mudl. the his ! n0t Perceive tt, and he never asked whether ' subjects fared well or ill; he took an interest 132 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET only in what concerned his own pocket. At that time the royal treasure had increased so much that something had to be done with it, and the king decided to use the money for building purposes. The first work he undertook was the new palace at Slog, a village opposite Leh, of which people say that it is "one dress colder" than Leh. (Difference in climate is in this country expressed by the greater or smaller number of clothes which are worn one above the other). The other palace built by Tsepal is the palace of the crown prince at Leh, above the Chanraszigs (Avalokitesvara) monastery. Tsepal's eldest son was Tsewang rabstan, and as he was on the point of being married to a princess of a province in Central Tibet (Lhagyari), the place was built for the couple; but it is not quite clear whether it was built by the father of the bride or of the bridegroom. In the end, however, through some misfortune in Tibet, the princess could not be asked to come there. Besides these two palaces, Tsepal erected a number of idols, mostly made of silver : a Vajrapäni (Phyagna rdorje) with a silver head, the figure being of the same size as the king, because this deity was his patron, a figure of the saint Guru Padma od bar, made of thirteen maunds of silver; at Sheh a Tsepagmed (a symbol?), made of seven maunds of silver; a whit6 Tärä (sgrolma), who since the days of Gyal katun was supposed to be incarnated in the Ladakhi queens, of nine maunds of silver; and a chorten of silver, with ornaments in gold, copper, and precious stones.J THE LAST TWO KENGS 133 Most of these silver images were probably carried off later on by the Dogras. The eldest son of Tsepal, Tsewang rabstan namgyal, seems to have died soon; for the interest of the chronicles is now turned towards Tsepaľs second son, Chogspru! namgyal, who had a will of his own when he was a child. Apparently to please his father [the "master of perfect insight," Lama Yangdzin ngapa, discovered that the prince was an incarnation of the great Lama, Bhilva dorjé, who had flourished during the reign of Tsewang namgyal D, and then the boy stayed at Hemis and Chemre. Having thus becomes so important a personage, he found it difficult to obey father and mother. Fortunately, there was still one person whose word he heeded; this was the queen's own steward, Sodnam wangchug. The queen, his mother, who was apparently very proud of her son, travelled about with him in Nubra, Pung, and Ladakh, never remaining at one and the same place. "It is for the prince's amusement!" she said, and they passed their time, both day and night, *"h dancing and singing. When the boy was old j*°ugh (presumably sixteen or seventeen years) the ng and ministers attempted to induce him to marry, °r the sake of the dynasty, but he would not. He Phed : "i have to be at Hemis!" and would not ^t. But as there was no other son, the king, o misters, lords, council of elders and the stewards . the head Lamaseries interceded with him; and order to preserve the dynasty, he consented and 134 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET married the younger daughter of the minister Tsewang dondrub, Skalzang rolma by name. Having once tasted the sweetness of matrimony, he married yet another lady, Tsunmo palskyid, of Pashkyum, and yet a third, Zora Katun. It was in a horse-year (1834) that he took these three wives, and it was in the same horse-year that Zorawar, with the Dogra army, arrived at Kartse.] By this time Tsepal had grown old, and although the chronicles have not told us much to enlist our admiration, still, in the memory of the people, Tsepal lives as the ideal patriarchal King of Ladakh. As he was the last independent king, all the virtues of his predecessors were believed to have been united in him. From this point of view we can best understand the description of the state of the country before the outbreak of the Dogra war, as it is given by Tsebstan of Kalatse : "At the time of the father-king (Tsepai), the following were his subjects : the people who dwelt between the Zoji Pass, Ladar, Shedula, and Polong drandra, they all were his subjects. Besides the father-king, no one was allowed to say anything here. To say 'Salaam' to the king there came from Kashmir a man called Malik annually, and together with him about one hundred ponymen. In reply to this the Ladakhi king sent with a man from Kalatse, called Dragchos dondrub, various products of Ladakh as a present; for instance, a horse, a yak, a sheep, a goat, a dog, and also more valuable things. (This refers to the peace of Tingmogang, 1647. the Sikhs taking the place of the Moguls.) THE LAST TWO KINGS 135 "The head steward of the king's household was the minister Puntsog rabstan of Nyemo; the royal cook was a man of the house 'cook' at Wanla; the royal butcher was Stobdan of the house 'butcher' at Alchi, and another man in Rubchu. All the grain for the royal household had to be brought from Nubra, and a nobleman, called Standzin, had the care of it. The needful butter had to be provided by a man from Zangskar. Besides this the peasants had no taxes to pay, and there was no unpaid forced labour. "When the king's merchants went to Lhasa (every three years, according to the peace of Tingmogang), every village had to send one man for the caravan. This man received two jaus (about sixpence) from every peasant in the village, as wages for his journey. For the same caravan every village had to give two hides, but the larger viläages three. They were used to wrap up the goods. "Toll had to be paid by the Kashmiris, Yarkandis, and the Lahoul traders on entering Ladakh; but it was not asked of the people of Purig, Baltistan, and Tibet. "Several villages were in debt to the king, and all their fields had been given to the king as security. On the day when the king's son (probably Chogsprul) was made assistant king to his father, all the debts were remitted. That act of the fang was very much •iked by the people." During this time of innocent thoughtlessness minister Ngorub Standzin composed his hymn in honour of King Tsepal. Of this poet we shall hear 136 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET more later on. The hymn is found in Ladakhi Songs. No. 1. Through perfect good fortune The happiness containing garden Karzo, Not being built, came into existence hy itself. It is the house of the gods and the sun Having in the zenith of the clear sky Sun and moon like umbrellas, so it arose. It is a wonderfully pleasing sight; It is like a fine room with pairs of pillars. Within, on a lion's throne, Sits Nyatri tsanpo's throne, Sits Nyatri tsanpo's family. That is the king of faith, Tsepal, with mother and son. May their feet on the lotus sfand one hundred cycles of years! On this magnificent high nut-tree Male and female birds sing melodious songs. Underneath, the youths, having gathered. Sing a song of happiness and welfare. "This song of praise was written by the Leh minister, Ngorub Standzin, in the fine castle within the Karzo garden." XII THE FALL OF THE WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE, 1834-1840 During the first decades of the nineteenth century the most important power of North India, except that of the English East India Company, was the fast-rising empire of the Sikhs, with Ranjit Singh, "The Lion of the Punjab," at its head. When this great warrior conquered Kashmir, in 1819, he was assisted by Gulab Singh, the Maharajah of Jarranu, the head of the Dogra tribe. The latter prince, although W first an ally of the Sikhs, felt more and more inclined to take the side of the English, when, after Ranjit Singh's death, an estrangement between the Sikhs and the English made itself more and more felt. As already in 1834 he considered himself the friend of the British, he did not wish to start on ^y enterprise before having ascertained the consent °f the East India Company. Thus, before his intended =onquest of the Ladakhi kingdom, he made a c°nfidentia] inquiry, whether the company would have ™y objection to such a campaign. As the English 138 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET had no reason to interfere with it, they are by certain critics looked upon as participators in the atrocities and cruelties of the Ladakhi wars; but, I think, without reason. We must not forget that in the year 1834 the districts of the Ladakhi kingdom were practically unknown ground to Europeans. Before Moorcroft, no European had known much about the existence of the kingdom;1 and twelve years after him much more was not yet known. At any rate, there was no reason why the English should have felt responsible for the fate of the Western Tibetan State. It was much the same as if, forty years ago, the Sultan of Uganda had asked the English if they had any objection to his waging war against the TJnyamwezi. That the Dogra chief had directed his attention to Ladakh was probably due to the revelation to Tsepaľs careless policy. Still, although successful raiding expeditions had been conducted into the frontier provinces of the country, the direct conquest of the kingdom was not without great risks, and of these the Dogra chief was probably aware. The severe cold of the climate was certain to reduce the usefulness of his Indian warriors, at least during the winter months; the barrenness of the country prohibited the mobilisation of a large army. Lack of knowledge of the roads made slow progress advisable. Still, in certain respects the Dogras were superior to the Ladakhis from the outset. Their participation nj several Indian wars had taught them tactics and 1 The short visits of the Jesuits to I,adakh had been forgotten- FALL OF WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE 139 discipline. Their equipment was up to date, whilst that of the Ladakhis was several centuries behind. And they had an experienced leader, whilst the Ladakhis had none. But one of the greatest advantages the Dogras obtained by surprising the Ladakhi kingdom at the time of deepest peace. The following account is compiled from three histories of the Dogra war, which are only in a few ;es, and on minor points, in conflict with each other; but as they all narrate different incidents of the same war, it is not at all easy to arrange them in chronological order. The first is the official Ladakhi history, as we find it in the chronicles.1 The second tee the personal reminiscences of a Ladakhi warrior, called Tsebstan, who died at Kalatse in 1905, about ninety years old. The third is the account of the Dogra colonel, Basti Ram, written at Genera! Sir Alexander Cunningham's request in 1846, and published in Ins Ladak. In this account the succession of events is perhaps the most correct. As the Dogras could not march through Kashmir, *hich then was the territory of the Sikhs, Gulab Singh sent his general Zorawar, with about 10,000 "ten, through Kishtawar, from whence the Ladakhi Province of Purig, in particular the possessions of ~"e Tri Sultan of Kartse, was soon reached. On the oth of August 1S34, Zorawar was opposed for the FS» time by a Ladakhi force of about 5000, which hi the following pages it was found impossible to mark ssage.; taken from the chronicles as before. !40 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET had been mobilised in haste, and placed under the command of the young minister of Stog, a dashing boy of only eighteen years. At Sanku, the Ladakhis had entrenched themselves on a hill, and defended it with much vigour for a full day. Unfortunately, with their very old matchlocks, they could not do much harm to the storming Dogras. Although the latter exposed themselves very much more than the Ladakhis, only six or seven Dogras were killed, while the Ladakhi losses are given by Basti Ram as thirty killed and as many wounded. At that time, the eccentric Dr Henderson was in Leh. He was asked by the king to prepare an allegiance with the English, but as that was not in his power, he was imprisoned at Leh, and kept there for several months. After the battle of Sanku the Ladakhis marched during the night across the Russi Pass to Shergol, where they halted for eight days. Thus the most important fortress of the district, Kartse, the seat of the Tri Sultans, remained in the hands of the Dogras, and they further improved their hold on the country by building a fort at Sum, and taking the neighbouring unoccupied fort of Shagkar. Taxes were levied on the peasants of all the villages which had been taken possession of, Every peasant had to pay four rupees. Leaving thirty-five men in the castle of Suru, the Dogra anny moved down the Suru River, first °> all Langkartse was taken, and by and by, fighting occasionally, but never with the whole Ladakhi force, FALL OF WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE 141 the Dogra army arrived in the plain of Pashkyum. But this time the Ladakhis were in expectation of reinforcements. The old king had sent his ministers, Ngorub Standzin and Bangkapa, to mobilise all those districts which had not yet sent any warriors, and now a force of about 4000 men was advancing towards Pashkyum. Apparently, before the arrival of this army, the young minister of Stog attacked the Dogras, and the fortunes of the day were almost on the side of the Ladakhis, when their brave young captain was suddenly struck by a musket ball and died. This was for the Ladakhis, superstitious as they are, the signal for a general flight. They fled in all directions, but most of them across the Pashkyum bridge, towards Mulbe and Shergol. After having passed the bridge, they had sense enough left to break it down. Bui the Dogras knew another method M crossing the river. They did so on inflated skins, and in the pursuit killed many Ladakhis and made Many more prisoners. Then the Dogras directed their attention to the Pashkyum castle, but found it empty, 38 fte chief had fled to the castle of Sod, a little a°rth of Kargil. Before Sod a battery was placed, ^d after ten days' firing Basti Ram was sent to ®e attack, and seized the castle and a numerous Särnson. But the number of captives in the battles of Pashkyum and Sod (6000), a given by Basti Ram, .„ a gross exaggeration. There may have been 600. Jj* fugitive Ladakhi army had arrived meanwhile 'store the two new leaders, and told them terrorinspired i42 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET stones of the greatness and armament of the Dogra army. But winter began to make itself felt in the Dogra camp, and, in spite of hts successes, Zorawar would very much have liked to end the campaign arid march back to Kishtawar, at any rate to spend the winter there. But he knew very well that he could not come before his sovereign, Gulab Singh, without a present of a considerable sum of money. And up to the present he had not got anything, besides the few rupees of the peasants round about Kartse. So he levied taxes on the peasants of the Pashkyum district, and then sent an envoy to open negotiations with the Ladakhis. He offered to go back, if a sum of 15,000 rupees was paid to him promptly. That was exactly what the Ladakhi generals wished to hear, and a messenger on horseback was at once sent with a letter to King Tsepal. Tsepal, as well as the council of noblemen, was pleased with the offer, and the sum would have been paid at once if one of the queens, as the chronicles tell, had not interfered, and prohibited the payment of the sum, which, in her eyes, was money thrown away. Thus the messenger, when he arrived back in the Ladakhi camp, brought nothing but a letter in which the two generals receive orders to bring Zorawar0 s head and hands to Leti. otherwise they would lose their own heads. If the Ladakhis had not had such unenterprising leaders they would have made use of the extrenJ cold of the winter, and might have been able FALL OF WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE 143 annihilate the Dogra army. A small attempt they actually made, and the fact that the success they actually attained was not utilised can only be comprehended on the ground of the incompetency jgf their generals. When the Dogra envoys retunied p the Ladakhi camp, to receive the 15,000 rupees, as the hoped, they were, as Basti Ram tells, treacherously seized and tlvrown from the bridge at Qarkyed. Not only that, but minister Bangkapa, by % circuitous route, attacked the Dogras in the rear, made some prisoners, who were at once bound and thrown into the river, and compelled the Dogras to go back to Langkartse, near Kartse. Now would have been tiie time for powerful attacks on the Dogras. Instead, the foolish Ladakhis left the enemy unmolested «t about four months. During this time they seem to have tried to increase fceir army by further mobilisation. The Ladakhi fnpire never had a standing army. Since the ■ffiroduetion of fire-arms, which had taken place at •Joy rate before the reign of Sengge mam rgyal, under whom fire-arms are mentioned for the first time, j^ery household was furnished with a matchlock, '«is old weapon and a certain supply of powder J™ tu be kept in readiness for times of war. When ™le call to amis was sent round the country, one Jtiitn with the matchlock had to come "from every 'rUse, carrying on his back provisions to last him * a whole month (chiefly parched grain) and ^kets for the night. This load was so heavy, as 144 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Tsebstan tells us, that the mobility of the army was considerably impeded by it. Artillery there was none. Cavaliy it would have been easy to raise, but it was not of much use in the mountainous country. The whole army may have amounted to 15,000 men — at the utmost, perhaps, 20,000. Now that the winter was almost over, the Ladakhis decided in a long consultant to make use of the heavy snowfalls, to which the Dogras certainly were not accustomed, as they thought, and to attack them at Langkartse. If there was anything that impeded the Dogras, it was not the heavy snow of the late spring but the extreme cold of mid-winter, which deprived them of the use of their fingers and thus also of their superior arms. Now their benumbed fingers had thawed and the deep snow made itself felt at least as much to the Ladakhis, with their heavy loads, as to the Dogras. When the Ladakhi army arrived before Langkartse nobody knew what he was to do, as there was no agreement between the leaders. The Dogras watched the endless consultations which apparently led to no result, and saw the whole army after al! settling down to prepw* the evening meal. The Dogras knew by this tune that they had nothing to fear from this sort of an enemy. They attacked the Ladakhis, and, as these did not receive any clear orders from their oifi«"1 they hurried away from their teapots and fled. Dunn» their flight, however, they made use of their arm > and the Dogras lost, according to their own státem«1 FALL OF WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE 145 three leaders and twenty- men killed, and fifty to sixty wounded, but there may have many more. Still, the greatest loss was inflicted on the Ladakhis by the snow, which they had believed to be on their own side. A party of 400 fleeing Ladakhis broke through a snow-bridge over the river and were drowned. Two hundred, as the Dogras say, were made prisoners, among them Ngorub Standzin, the general without any initiative.1 The Ladakhi army retreated as far as Mulbe, and the Dogras moved down to Pashkyum for the second time. When the Ladakhis heard of this movement, they retired still further towards Leh. Thus both armies were moving in the same direction, the Ladakhis being generally two days in front of the Dogras. Those Purig chiefs who had been kept in prison by Tsepal some time before, served .as guides to the Dogras. Why the Ladakhis did not break down «1 the bridges during their retreat is difficult to understand. When the Dogras arrived at Kharbu, the People of Lamayura felt rauch fear, and, to save "Wir property, they sent a pony and some money 85 a present to Zorawar, who was weil pleased, and pit a soldier to Lamayuru as a safeguard. When J* army arrived at that place the people of Tea ^Smogang became frightened. They sent two horses ^™ some money, and also received a safeguard. From Tsebstan's account it looks almost as if the young lifter had died in this battle. But it is more probable that d,ed before, as the chronicles have it. 146 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET When the Dogras had got as far as Nyurla (snytingh) they were met by embassies from the villages of Saspola, Alchi, Nyemo, and Likir, who all brought presents and did homage to Zorawar, and he promised to protect them. At Basgo, the first meeting of Zorawar with King Tsepal took place, and it appears as if the peace negotiations had been practically finished at Basgo, and that Zorawar went up to Leh only, as he said, "to see the capital." When the Wazir came to Leh he had only a very small detachment of soldiers with him as a guard; but he had given secret orders that more soldiers, always in twos, should come up after him; and shortly a considerable number were assembled in Leh. Basti Ram gives a different explanation of practically the whole Dogra army being at Leh. He tells that Zorawar made a present of 100 rupees in a bag to the crown-prince, Chogsprul, which he swung round the young man's head. The latter mistook this act of goodwill for an attack, and drew his swords. Then also the bystanding Dogras drew their swords. Tsepal went down on his knees and clasped Zorawar's feet, and there was a lit* scene, until matters had been explained. This lit* episode is given as the reason why the Dogra armřl came up to Leh. ^ The second part of the peace negotiations to place in the Karzo garden, where Zorawar had« tent. Zorawar's first act was to restore the w kingdom to Tsepal, which the latter accepted w , FALL OF WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE 147 much pleasure and great respect. As, however, the kingdom was henceforth to be considered a vassal-state of the Dogra kingdom of Jammu, Tsepal was asked to pay an annual tribute of 20,000 rupees. Besides, he was ordered to pay on the spot 50,000 rupees towards the expenses of the war. As so much money could not possibly be procured in Leh, it was arranged that only 37,000 rupees were to be paid at once, in cash and jewels, 6000 after one month, and 7000 after four months. The Ladakhi chronicles gives only 9000 as the annual tribute, and do not mention the war indemnity at all. But it is more probable that Basti Ram's higher figures are correct After a stay of four months, Zorawar left Leh, and marched back to Lamayura. The war would perhaps have been at an end now, if the Sikhs had not grudged the Dogras the conquest of Ladakhi. But at the instigation of Mihan Singh, The Sikh Governor of Kashmir, the Ladakhis revolted again and again against their powerful masters. The first Ladakhi who listened to the promises of Mihan Singh "as the chief of Sod, whose castle had been bombarded. When Zorawar was in Leh, the chief °i Sod marched against the Dogra fort at Sum, captured it, and put the small garrison to death. Of JJ1S event Zorawar heard when he was at Lamayura. ■;* marched at once to Suru, where he surprised "j* Ladakhis and seized thirteen, who were hanged. s> however, his thirst for revenge was not yet 148 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET quenched, he promised a reward of 50 rupees per head for any others of the chief of Sod's force. The peasants, who were anxious to get their 50 rupees, soon accused 200 men of having partaken in this chiefs insurrection. They were all beheaded without trial. Then the Wazir, Zorawar, marched in ten days to Zangskar, the king of which place promised to pay a tax of i'A rupees for each house. After all this had been accomplished the Wazir went, apparently, to Jammu, to report his successes to his master, Gulab Singh. During the winter (apparently 1835-36) King Tsepal listened to the suggestions of Mihan Singh, the Governor of Kashmir, and began to prepare a revolution against the Dogra rule. He closed the roads to the trade, and imprisoned and tortured the Dogra representative, Munshi Daya Ram, who was stationed at Leh. Before the Ladakhis had done much more, Zorawar arrived with an army at Chemre, above Leh, which he had reached after passing through Zangskar and Shang, and King Tsepal, who had not even a small army at his disposal, hastened to the bridge at Chushod, where he humbly bowed before Zor3^ and expressed his sorrow for what had happened. The Wazir said : "Although we conquered y° country with only 10,000 men, we did not pla« a single man of our own over your districts, this is the way you show your gratitute!" The ^ was much ashamed, but he may have thought, FALL OF WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE 149 we do, that the Dogras' mild treatment of the conquered dynasty was not so much due to their sense of mercy as to their hope of getting more money out of the country. The heir-apparent of Ladakh, Prince Chogsprul, who probably was implicated in the rising, fled on Zorawar's arrival through Spiti to Lahoul. As popular tradition says, he hoped to gain the assistance of the English against itbe Dogras. Moorcroft's visit was suddenly remembered, and the Ladakhis still assert that in a talk with some European sahibs Chogsprul .received the promise of military help. But about all this there is no certainty whatever; nobody even knows who the sahibs were. After the interview Chogsprul went back to Spiti, and died there. 1 Old Tsepal had to accompany the Wazir to Leh, where the balance of 13,000 rupees for the expenses of the war was demanded. They had not yet been 'paid, nor was Tsepal in the possession of any cash now. It was paid by taking the property of the royal ladies. But there were the additional expenses of the new war, and to meet them Tsepal's minister offered all sorts of things, which were accepted, as nothing better could be got out of the country. But the Wazir had to arrange matters on a new Principle. Tsepal could not be trusted with the government any longer; he was dismissed, and received the village of S tog, together with the taxes °f about sixty peasants. Then arose the question who p8s to take his place*7 Chogsprul had died, and a 150 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Dogra was hardly able to manage the Ladakhis satisfactorily. Zorawar had iearat to know a Ladakhi who appeared to be a trustworthy man. This was Dragchos the first man of Kalatse. He was asked to accept the responsibility for all Ladakh. However, Dragchos, who had always been a true and faithful servant of his old king, looked upon the new and high position offered him as an act of infidelity against his former master, and said : "Until now have I been a servant of the King of Ladakh, and have received ample food and drink from him. I shall not now revolt against him." Zorawar was much displeased with this proof of loyalty, and Dragchos was taken to Jammu at the next opportunity, and nobody has ever heard of him since. Then Zorawar directed his attention to Ngorub Standzin, the Ladakhi general—a relation of the old Jong—who had been made a prisoner, and found him at once ready to accept the dignity of a king of Ladakh. Ngorub Standzin's career was as follows: First, an official of the king, who wrote poetry in honour of his master; next, a general of the Ladakiii army, who through his want of initiative and his half-heartedness was mainly the cause of the downfall of the empire; then, a prisoner of the Dogras; an now suddenly king of Ladakh. He seems to have been one of those who easily impress others, especially the mob; for there is a song still kn° about his wedding, in which much is made of n*S Zorawar built a fort at Leh, and placed 300 soldier FALL OF WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE 151 in it. Then he went to Jammu, taking along with him Ngorub Standzin's son and several other people as hostages. On the way down, when passing by the palatial residence of Tingmogang, Zorawar emptied this treasure-house of the Ladakhi kings and destroyed it. The manifold articles which he had received as the Ladakhi contribution towards the expenses of the war were probably not considered sufficient. Presumably the castle of Basgo was destroyed and plundered at the same time. When Zorawar was in Jammu a iittle revolt took place in Zangskar, and Basti Ram received orders to quell it with 1500 men. He did so, and left a garrison of twenty men at the fort of Chatgarh, on the south-western frontier. Gulab Singh was not pleased to hear that Ngorub Standzin had been placed on the throne of Ladakh. Zorawar replied that he belonged to the royal family, hut that he would be deposed if Gulab Singh preferred i'. A reason for deposing the new king was soon found, for the news was brought in that another revolt had taken place in Zangskar, and that the garrison °f twenty men at Chatgarh had been annihilated. Although it is very improbable that Ngorub Standzin "ad any hand in this affair, he was called the wiginator of it. Zorawar started with 3000 infantry. The swollen state of the rivers made their progress difficult. But ™«y arrived before Chatgarh, and took it by storm, »heir losses were fifteen, whilst those of the enemy 152 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET were twenty dead and twenty to thirty prisoners. All the prisoners had their ears and noses cut off. When the Uogras went from Chatgarh to Spadům, the capital of Zangskar, the cold was so severe that twenty-five men died in the snow, and many others lost their hands and feet. Therefore, before proceeding any farther, it was thought necessary to stay there for two months, to await pleasanter weather. When, after that time, Ngorub Standzin heard that the Wazir was advancing towards Leh, he left all his royal dignity behind and fled to Spití, although the enemy numbered only 1000. Whether he actually had a bad conscience, or whether he was only afraid of slander, cannot be decided. But no favourable interpretation was put upon his flight. He was followed, and seized in Spiti. Then he was locked up in the Leh prison. Now old King Tsepal was reinstated on the terms of 23,000 rupees annual tribute. Then the Wazir went to Jammu and stayed there for one year. At the end of that time he had once more to come to Ladakh to seize imprisoned Ngorub Standzin and several others who had been plotting against old Tsepal. They were all transported to Jammu. The following is a passage from the song of Prince Chogsprul's flight :— The sun is rising, the wann sun of the East; ^ He is rising on the summit of the good place of three o happiness. ^ May the pure rays of the sun fall on the fatherland «" I was bom! FALL OF WESTERN TIBETAN EMPIRE 153 May the pure rays of the sun fall on the great town of Leh with its three courts of government When i. a boy, lived in my fatherland, I was surrounded by severants, inside and outside the palace. When Chogsprul lived in the great town of Leh, the number of his servants was like the stars of heaven. When I, a boy, went to a foreign country, I was alone with my horse. When Chogsprul wem to Spiti, we were only one man and one horse. When we went across all the large and little plains, 1 was so thirsty that I humbly prayed for water. When 1, a boy, was still in my fatherland, I had always a pair of teapots, like the sun and moon. Then I, a boy, went to sleep under a cedar-tree. . . . XIII THE CONQUEST OF BALTISTAN, 1841 During the winter of 1840 to 1841 the Ladakhis were again in a state of excitement, because a man from Purig, called Sukamir, had issued a call-to-arms to the whole country. Several other influential men of Purig had joined Sukamir in issuing similar orders, and an army was being formed in the vicinity of Leh. Although old Tsepal did nothing to encourage the insurrection, he did just as little to stop it. Before the movement had grown sufficiently to become dangerous to the Dogras, Zorawar, the man who always arrived in the country at the wrong time for the Ladakhis, entered Leh at the head of a large army. The Ladakhi army which was being collected could no longer be concealed from the Dogras, and therefore they tried to deceive them. They said that they were a body of petitioners who had come to greet Zorawar and tell him their different woes. Zorawar was equal to the occasion, and advised them to leave their leaders with him, and the rest to SP home. In this way Zorawar got Sukamir and several THE CONQUEST OF BALTIST AN 155 other Purig leaders in his power, and the hostile army melted away of itself. After a few days the Ladakhis were cross-examined with regard to the originators of the revolt, and Sukamir was recognised as its instigator. Zorawar ordered the executioner to come with his sword, and to place a pot filled with butter over a fire. Then, whilst Zorawar was abusing his victim, the executioner was ordered to cut off Sukamir's right hand and to dip the stump at once into the boiling butter. (This is the Dogra way of stopping excessive bleeding.) Then the executioner had also to cut off Sukamir's tongue. To warn the Ladakhis against following other evil advisers, Zorawar ordered Sukamir's hand to be exhibited in public on a pole at the Kalatse bridge. The hand arrived there all right, and was placed during the night in the rest-house. But a cat stole it, and the peasants of Kalatse greatly feared that all their hands might be cut off, as a punishment for their neglect. Fortunately an old Lama had died only a few days before. His hand was cut off and fastened on the top of the Pole at the bridge, where it served its purpose as well as the other would have done. Then Zorawar had a new idea to keep the Ladakhis from intriguing against the rule of the Dogras. If fey formed part of the Dogra army on a new Spedition, it would give them something to do. Therefore Zorawar decided on an expedition against Baltistan. This time, too, he had a pretext to wage 156 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET war against that country. The old chief of Škardo, Ahmed Shah, had excluded his eldest son, Muhamad Shah, from the succession, in favour of his second son. Muhamad Shah fled to Zorawar, and asked for his assistance m obtaining the throne. Zorawar was very glad of the opportunity, and resolved to give Ahmed Shah a lesson concerning the most natural law of succession. The Ladakhi half of the army was placed under the command of their old general, Bangkapa, and had orders to enter Baltisian by Hanu and the Chorbat Pass. This portion of the army never came within sight of the enemy, and reached Škardo in course of time without having fired a bullet. With this portion of the army also old King Tsepal, whom Zorawar did not wish to leave alone in Ladakh, probably had to march. The Dogra and Purig portion of the army started from Kargil, and went along the Dras River and the Indus. The Dogras had crossed the Indus, and were on the right bank; then the Indus had to be crossed once more, as the road continued on the left bank, and the Baltis, after having marched acr0^; had broken down the bridge. Thus the Dogras tried to find a road on the right bank, to get round the many precipices and empty gaps. At the beginning Mir Nidhan Singh was empty gaps. At the beginning Mir Nidhan Singh was dispatched with 5000 men on this errand. But the Baltis, who had been waitinJ for that, lured him into an ambush, and of his for THE CONQUEST OF BALTISTAN 157 only 400 escaped to the Dogra camp. The situation of the Dogra army on the right bank grew worse and worse, as hardly and provision could be transported there, and the cold of the winter made itself badly felt in the narrow valleys and gorges. It was Basti Ram's energy which saved them. When the despair pf the Dogras was at its height, Basti Ram went along the Indus reconnoitring, to see if he could not find a place on the river where the slower current had permitted the formation of an ice-bridge. But such a bridge he could not find. He had, however, several Dards from Da with him, and when they understood what he was in want of they said that they would make him a bridge across the river within á few hours. The Dards make bridges across the Indus in places where they wish to have them every year in winter. Their method is the foliowing : They fasten several beams to the bank in such a way fliat they project into the river. After a short time fcey are frozen in an encrustation of ice of such solidity that it is possible to walk on them as far as the outer end. Then several more beams are fastened to the first, and are made to project farther into the river. When they are frozen in another set °f beams is brought, and so on, until the other bank 's reached. Such a bridge of ice and wood was built by the Dards, and when it was ready the Dogra aimy crossed the river at night and surprised the cämp of the Baltis, who had not even posted sentinels to warn them. In this night-combat the Baltis were 158 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET defeated and fled towards Škardo. The castle of Škardo was beleaguered by the united Dogra and Ladakhi armies, and had to surrender soon for want of water. Then Muhamad Shah was made chief of Baltistan, and a fort was built, in which a Dogra garrison was placed. To warn the Baltis against future revolutions, Zorawar gave them an object lesson at Škardo, showing them what their punishment would be in such a case. Among the Ladakhis who had joined Sukamir in the revolt against the Dogras, there was a certain Kahim Khan, of Chigtan, and a man called Hussein, of Pashkyum. And when the chief of Škardo, Ahmed Shah, had been made prisoner by Zorawar, the latter gave him orders to seize Rahim Khan and bring him to Škardo. Ahmed Shah did not like this kind of business, and tried to avoid it. But Zorawar threatened him in such a way that he ordered his Baltis to find Rahim Khan, and bring him bound before the Wazir. When both he and Hussein were secured, Zorawar issued an order to all the Dogras, Ladakhis, and Baltis who were assembled at Škardo, to come together in a lucerne field, in the middle of the town. Everybody had to appear, even the women, the old, the lame, and the blind, as Tsebstan tells us. Zorawar and old King Tsepal had a tent erected for each of them. Old Tsepal was to s^j how those of his subjects were treated who had nss their lives in his cause. Then Rahim Khan was escorted into the middle THE CONQUEST OF BALTISTAN 159 of the assembly and placed, bound, before the two tents. There he was told to eat a quantity of hemp, because he was assured it wouid save him much pain. Butter was again boiled, which made people anticipate what was to happen. Then the executioner appeared and cut off Rahim Khan's right hand, his tongue, his nose, his ears, all the time making ample use of the hot butter, and, having finished, threw his victim in the middle of the crowed. After Rahim Khan, Hussein was treated in a similar way, but he was deprived only of his hand and tongue. He remained alive, whilst Rahim Khan died after two days. Thus Zorawar had proved once more that he was a genuine Oriental in the treatment of his captives. Still, it must be acknowledged that in this case he was satisfied with torturing two men only, and also that such cases as the execution of the two hundred prisoners at Sum, of which we heard before, were rare occurrences. Ali the treasures were taken out If the castle of Škardo and carried to Leh, together w'th Ahmed Shah, the former owner of them. King Tsepal, General Bangkapa, and the army if Ladakh received permission to return home. However, King Tsepal did not get very far. He had suffered more than his constitution could stand. He *as seized with smallpox, and died on the road. Ba prevent the population from increasing, this syitef^ was invented, and it would be a misfortune if, wl the introduction of Christianity, monogamy *a introduced. These philosophers, Ramsay among them, entirely forget that, before the introduction Christianity, Mohammedanism had entered the caan"V and that, together with it, polygamy began to spr ■ The supposed aim of polyandry, to keep the P°Pui^ber within narrow limits, can only be reached if a nu ^ of women are ready to remain single. Spin MISSIONARY'S REVIEW 173 however, are hardly found in non-Christian countries. A! the present time those women who are not married by Lamaists find it easy to become the wives of the many Mohammedan merchants at Leh, although 'jÜiey are often married for a very short period only to a certain man. instead of assailing Christianity, our wise philosophers had better attack Mohammedanism as a harmful system. Still, in spite «f Mohammedanism and the beginning of Christianity, flthe country (Ladakh proper) is far from being over-populated. Immorality, nurtured by polyandry, has so undermined the powers of increase of the people Bhat uncared-for orphan children are almost nonexistent. Orphan children are adopted at the first opportunity, because most of the peasants are short of hands to work their fields properly. But we must not forget that the inhabitants of Western Tibet have to be grateful to Buddhism for l»ne important acquisition, the art of reading and [foriting. Long before the commencement of Lamaism, m the first centuries before Christ, the Indian BrShmi Wphabet, used for Sanskrit, entered the deserts of festem Tibet as the first script. It was followed *y several other Indian scripts, specimens of which Pave been found, dating from the beginning of our iia down to the eleventh century. These scripts are: foiaroshthí, of the Kushana era; Brähmi, of the püshana era; Indian characters, of the eighth or ninth ^d of the eleventh century. The most important Plphabet was the Tibetan alphabet, which in its present 174 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET form may have been introduced during the eighth or ninth century. Its importance rests on the fact that Tibetan conquered the territories of tlie Dard and Mon languages, and was the vehicle of a vast literature. At first this literature must have exercised a certain influence on those who studied it. But as the aims of its study were not enlightenment but the accumulation of religious merit, the influence of its doctrines became less and less. It became petrified, and the reading of it degenerated into a rattling off of syllables, the meaning of which was not considered worthy of reflection. Suddenly Western Tibet was overrun by Mohammedans; the most western portions were entirely converted to Mohammedanism, whilst the capital and its surroundings received a considerable sprinkling of the new religion. Therefore the question is not without interest : Has the new religion proved to have any elevating powers, as compared with Lamaism? In savage countries, Mohammedanism has certainly been the means of elevating people to a higher standard than they had before its arrival. It is different in countries which possess a culture ol their own. Thus, in Western Tibet I find it impossible to discover any progress which can be put to the credit of the Mohammedans. I will not say that the country has deteriorated. It seems to have remained much the same. The art of reading and writing, as possessed by the Ladakhis and Baltis, was no* acknowledged by the Mohammedans, in whose eye MISSIONARY'S REVIEW 175 only a knowledge of the Arabic characters was of • any value. So, in the Mussulman territories this new ^alphabet and the reading of the Koran in Arabic kyere taught. As also in this case the understanding Kf the religious text was considered to be of minor I'iimportance, the general education of the people remained on the same low level it had reached before. Still, one doctrine of Mohammedanism attained popularity and influence amongst its adherents : the doctrine of One God Only, and of the vanity of Mi idols. This is the great truth and strength of this fceligion, and on account of it Mohammedanism [Spreads also in those lands where it is not supported By arms. This doctrine appeals to the common sense gf all nations, as do the Ten Commandments; and :ihe vanity of the modem Hindo saying, "People must Be led to a higher understanding of God by beginning With visible representations of Him!" is proved by pe quick and general acceptance of the Moslem truth. jBut, unfortunately, the understanding of this great inith, which is not connected with a moral system gf high standard, makes its adherents self-contented IM conceited, especially if they are surrounded by Polaters. Mussulmans are always in danger of pěveloping into Pharisees, and mission work among pern is as difficult now as Christ found it to be pöong the Pharisees. I But mission work among Buddhists and Lamaists Knot very easy either. A Buddhist Lama who has Rhderstood the doctrines of his system to a certain 176 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET degree rooks down with contempt on every other wisdom, and is quite capable of enveloping himself in as much conceit as the.ordinary Mussulman does. The laity, who have to be satisfied with the grossest idolatry, are kept in strict dependence on the ecclesiastical institutions; for the monasteries have developed into a sort of banking establishments, and there is hardly a peasant who is not in debt to one or the other monastery. Does it not look like a hopeless enterprise to do mission work in a country where Lamaism and Mohammedanism meet? And yet, God, who claims to be also the God of the heathen, as the prophets of the Old Testament assert, claims also me steppes of Western Tibet as His own. That He is the God of the heathen He has proved, as I believe , also in the history of Western Tibet. As was noted above, even the heathen Ladakhis believe they can see His hand in the story of blind King Lhawang namgya. who was dethroned by his brother Trashi namgya'-When hearing that Trashi remained without children, they exclaim : "How just is God!" although, according to Buddhist philosophy, they ought to be pure atheists. And we can well imagine that a king who, like Bum lde, tried his best to fulfil the precepts of his religion, imperfect though it was, is mar graciously looked upon by the God of the hea™ than many another whose thoughts never rose abo the things of this world. But when looking at i inroads of Mohammedanism and the unhappy MISSIONARY'S REVIEW 177 m the kingdom during its last decades, we cannot help recognising the hand of our God, who prepared ihe country for the coming of Christianity. This preparation took place according to a similar method, though on a smaller scale, as occurred in Europe «efore the advent of Christ. Hard to conquer though both are, Mohammedanism as well as Buddhism, they were both weakened by ibeing brought in contact with each other. This can lbe plainly observed in Leh. The adherents of both religions are most bigoted in those territories where they never get to see adherents of other creeds. In 'a religiously mixed population the belief in the ^infallibility of any particular religion is often shaken, land in consequence of this the religious convictions bf any one creed become weaker. Although the next íesult of such a process is indifference towards any ■brm of religion, still, in a soil of that kind, Christianity is more acceptable than it was before Re process began. The indifference towards religion Ss particularly exemplified in the case of marriages m Leh. The girls generally change their religion like m dress. They become Buddhists if they have an pspportunity to marry a Buddhist husband, and Mohammedans in the other case. I The hand of God showed its power in particular Puring the last decades of the Western Tibetan empire. JWhen 11 was against it. Of the last two brother-kings, Tsestan died as a young man. He was superior as p ruler to many of his predecessors, and might have 178 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET been the man to strengthen his kingdom to such an extent as to be able to resist the Dogras. And during the Dogra war the only leader who might have carried the war to a glorious end, the young minister of Stog, lost his life in one of the first battles. It is quite evident the time had arrived for the kingdom to come to an end, and it could not be saved by men. It was to become impregnated with the great flood of new conceptions and ideas which had found their way to India, and, together with them, the great problem of Christian missions was to be realised in Western Tibet, The progress of the mission work was slow in the beginning, but has become a little quicker in course of time, and the importance of this work for the Christianisation of the whole of Tibet cannot be overestimated. Here, not only the methods for the evangelisation of Tibet proper can be learned, but the fact is demonstrated to the Tibetans, that it is quite possible to be a Tibetan by birth and yet a Christian by re-birth. God grant that in no very far future the history of Tibet may enter upon a new phase, that of a Christian Tibet! Appendices APPENDIX I RINCHANA BHOTI'S CAREER, ACCORDING TO MATERIAL SUPPLIED BY DR J. PH. VOGEL The Tibetan record does not contain more than Pnnce Rinchen's name, but the chronicles of Kashmir have a long chapter on a Tibetan prince Rinchana, who was king of Kashmir about 1319-1323 a.D., and it is quite probable that the two are identical, although it is somewhat difficult to reconcile the Kashmir record with what we know of West Tibetan history. According to the Kashmir chronicles, it was the murder of Rinchana's father, Vakatanya, by a tribe of Kalamanyas, that caused Rmchana's departure from Tibet. The word Kalamanya probably stands for ' 'men of Kharmang," Kharmang being the capital of a tribe of Baltis; and it looks almost as if the Baltis had at that time tried to annihilate the Ladakhi dynasty. The name Vakatanya may refer to the castle of Vaka near Mulbe. which was in the hands of the Ladakhi kings. We shall' hardly ever get beyond the realm of supposition with regard to the political state of Western Tibet of those days, and must not expect the Kashmir chronicler to have troubled tnuch about Rinchana's early history. There are three 180 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET reasons in particular which make us believe in the possible identity of rGyalbu rinchen and the Rinchana of Kashmir: (1) the fact that the Tibetan record speaks of Rinchen only as a "prince" (rgyalbu); (2) the identity of name; (3) the approximate identity of time. Still, I do not consider the proof sufficient enough to compel me to alter my system of chronology in favour of the Kashmir date 1319-1329. But even if Rinchana could be proved to be of Balti or Purig instead of Ladakhi descent, a history of Western Tibet would not be complete without mentioning him. After having avenged his family on the people of Kalamanya, Rinchana proceeded to Kashmir. He arrived there at a time of great disorder, which had been caused by the raid of a Turkish invader called Drutuca. The king of Kashmir, Suhadeva, was a good-for-nothing man-But the minister of Kashmir, Ramachandra, took up arms against the Turks. When he was murdered by the Tibetans, and Druluca sent out of the country, Rinchana became undisputed master of the country and mamed Queen Kota, the wife or daughter of Ramachandra. Order was at once restored, and the Kashmir chronicles praise the time of Rinchana's government m the highest terms. To illustrate his wisdom in pronouncing judgment, two Soiomon-hke stories are told :— Two mares, which grazed in the same forest, had each a colt. A lion killed one of the colts, and the owners of the mares both claimed the surviving colt as their own. King Rinchana ordered the two mares and the colt to be brought on board a ship on the river Jhelum, and when the middle of the current was reached he thre the colt overborad. At once the mare which was the re» mother jumped into the water after the colt, whilst other one only neighed. APPENDICES 183 The other story runs as follows : One of Rinchana's followers was reported to have taken milk from a cowherd without payment. The man denied having taken any. In order to ascertain the truth, Rinchana ordered the man's stomach to be cut open. When the milk gushed forth Rinchana's wisdom was greatly admired; but one wonders how he would have mended his mistake if the victim had not been guilty! Later on, some of Rinchana's Tibetan followers, at the instigation of the Turk Druluca, made an attempt to murder the king. They were headed by Tukka (probably Drugpa in Tibetan), but were not successful. However, Rinchana died a few months after from headache, caused by a cold. The son who was born to him in Kashmir did not Succeed him as long of Kashmir. But, before leaving Ladakh, rGyalbu Rinchen apparently had a son who became Lking of Ladakh, for there is no break in the line of Ladakhi kings. APPENDIX II THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF LAHOUL (THE ancient history of Lahoul differs from that of Ladakh. It is contained chiefly in the languages of the country. The fact that the little country of Lahoul possesses three distinct languages which are not related to the Aryan languages of India, and only distantly related to Tibetan, has long been a puzzle to philologists. The grand work *>f the Linguistic Survey of India, recently undertaken by Öie Indian Government, has, however, done much towards elucidating the problem of Lahoul among many others. The excellent material which the Rev. J. Brüske, one pf the Moravian missionaries, prepared for the Linguistic 182 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET Survey revealed the fact that the grammar of the Kanaweri language, which is spoken in the neighbourhood of Chini, on the Sutlej, has strong affinities to the languages of the Mundaris, who live to the south-west of Calcutta. As the Kanaweri language was known to be closely related to the three languages of Lahoul, these languages, Bunan, Manchánt, and Tinan, were examined in search of similar affinities, and it was proved that their relationship to the Mundari languages was exactly the same as that of Kanaweri. As regards their vocabulary, the three languages of Lahoul show a strong resemblance to Tibetan; but, as regards their grammar, they differ widely from any Tibetan dialect, and show surprising coincidences with Mundari. Let us first examine the Mundari side of the question. To a Tibetan student of the three languages of Lahoul the following facts appear extraordinary: (1) Higher numbers are counted in twenties instead of in tens. Thus fifty is "twice twenty and ten" (rtyis sai chui) in Bunan. (2) The complicated system of personal pronouns. All these languages have not only double forms for "we,'" one including the person addressed, and the other excluding the same (one corresponding to the English "I and you, the other to the English "I and they"), as also many Tibetan dialects have it; but they possess also dual and plural forms of the pronouns. Thus, before selecting the proper word for "we," "our," "us," etc., in these languages, the speaker has to think as follows : Are there two or more persons who make up the "we"? y° pl include the person or persons before me in the w<=> or do I not? Reason enough to cause a beginner m m s« languages to hesitate before he pronounces the word «■ (3) The three languages of Lahoul have very full sysionS of conjugation, with terminations for the different pers APPENDICES 183 singular and plural, whilst the Tibetan verb hardly ever distinguishes between persons. Thus "I made, thou madest," etc., is conjugated in Bunan and Tibetan'in the following way ;— Bunan Tibetan ligkiza chospin hgzana chospin !igza chospin Hits» chospin ligtsam chospin Hgtsa chospin (4) The three languages of Lahoul have a very strange system of pronominal "interfix," so to speak, i.e., the incorporation of the object in the verb. As we have seen ligza means in Bunan "he made." A word to express "for me," or "me," is hi. If I wish to say "he made Mor me," I have to divide the word Ilgza and insert the word ku between its two parts. Thus iigkuza, "he made for me." (5) The three languages of Lahoul contain a certain class of sounds which is entirely foreign to the Tibetan system of phonetics. They are the half-pronounced |je and d sounds, which occur at the end of words. Their sound is almost as comical and extraordinary to the European ear as are the "clicks" of the Kafir and Hottentot languages I In all the peculiarities enumerated above, the three Janguages of Lahoul, as well as Kanaweri, agree solely ■P the Mundari languages of Central India, and not pith any other Indian language. Thus philology assures Rs of the extraordinary fact that in very remote times St our mountain regions the amalgamation of a Tibetan «"ibc with the Mundaris must have taken place. Without ite strong evidence of philology no one would have 184 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET ventured on such an assertion; for the Mundaris are ax present one of the smallest Indian tribes, numbering only four to five millions, and their principal home being near Calcutta they live at a considerable distance from Lahoul. Philology, however, induces us to believe that at some very remote time, say 2000 B.c., they must have extended to the frontiers of Tibet. " Then, who are the Mundaris? In Hörnle's History of India, of 1905, the Mundaris are mentioned among the uncivilised aborigines who occupied India at the time of the Aryan invasion, about 2000 b.c. Of these aborigines he says : "hi the earliest ages of which we know anything at all, India was inhabited by certain tribes who were distinguished for very dark skins and flat noses. We call them aborigines, i.e., 'people of the beginning,' because we do not know whence and when they came into the country. There are certain points which seem to connect them on the one hand with the native races of Australia, and on the other with the Fmno-Tartaric races in the northwest of Asia. But this goes back to a time when the earth's surface had not yet attained its present distribution of land and water. Of India, in its present state, the earliest inhabitants known to us are the so-called Munda races (Mundaris). They still survive in the wilder parts of the country, and are represented by the Bhils, Kols, Santals, Juangs, and other uncivilised tribes of Central India. To them also belong the natives of the Andaman ar» neighbouring islands, and the Veddas of Ceylon. They were savage people, living in small bands in the dense jungles and forests which then covered most parts of hi"1^ Their occupation was to hunt wild animals, or to raj upon one another, which they did with weapons ma e of stone. They lived on the wild produce of the j""^ on roots and fruits, and on raw flesh; and they kne APPENDICES 185 neither the breeding of cattle nor the tilling of the land; nor had they any settled laws or forms of government. They made pots of clay, and baked them m the fire. They buried their dead, and over their graves they set up upright slabs of rock or circles of stone. It is from these, and the things found in them, that we are able to form some idea of the life and customs of the wild aborigines.'1 The Tibetan element of their parentage is represented more particularly in the vocabulary of the three languages of Lahoul; and, indeed, these languages have preserved to the present day a number of Tibetan words in a more archaic form than can be found in any Tibetan dialect or archaeological document. Such a word is the word gjwg (M gyag)> "day," Tibetan zhag. We know from Tibetan dialects that gy can become j, and j is often changed into zh. In all Tibetan records the word for "day" is zhag, and it is only from Lahouli that we learn that in very remote times it was probably pronounced gyag. Another example is the word for "life," shrog m Tibetan and strog in Lahouli. Tibetan phonetics teach us that the pronunciation str, skr, etc., preceded the present pronunciation shr. But this word is represented in its ancient form in none of the most archaic Tibetan documents, and we know only from Lahouli that the word shrog was actually preceded by an ancient word strog. As regards the Tibetan vowel system, we know that a is a more original vowel than o, if it occurs in the same root. Thus we can imagine that several words which contain an o at the present time may have had an a in earlier days. Now we find a number of Tibetan words which contain an a only in Lahouli; for instance, tang or thang, "see," Tibetan thong; lag, "return," Tibetan log, etc. Thus, also in this case, the languages of Lahoul have preserved a state of things which 186 A HISTORY OF WESTERN TIBET preceded by a long way even the most archaic type of Tibetan known. Thus the Tibetan side of the question comes in to confirm what has to be surmised from the Mundan evidence, viz., that the amalgamation of the two peoples must have taken place at a very early date, probably before the immigration of the Aryans into India. But something more- should be said regarding the Tibetan element in the languages of Lahoul, in particular Bunan. Besides the preclassical Tibetan words found in Bunan, as mentioned above, we have traces of yet a second and a third flood of Tibetan words which have entered this language. The second flood is represented by Tibetan words the pronunciation of which is in harmony with the ancient classical orthography of Tibetan, whilst in modern Tibetan the pronunciation has become different from the original spelling. This influx of Tibetan words into Bunan is best illustrated by an extract from the Rev. H.A. Jaschke's list :— Bunan. Tibetan (classical Tibetan (modem orthography). pronunciation). Khral Khral thai Grogpa Grogpa dogpo Phyugpo Phyugpo chugpo Bn Bn di Brang Brang dang This list of words testifies to the great influence which the Tibetans must have exercised in the Bunan valley, say, about the days of Christ, when their pronunciation may have been in accordance with the present classical spelling. The third influx of Tibetan is represented by another group of Tibetan loan-words in Bunan, the pronunciation of which is not in accordance with the classical Tibetan orthography but with the present Tibetan pronunciation. APPENDICES 187 The following are a few specimens taken from Jaschke's list :— Bunan. Tibetan (classical Tibetan (modem orthography). pronunciation). tam kram tarn thim khrims thim jungva byungba jungva chodpa spyodpa chodpa doi gros doi This last influx of Tibetan words must have taken [place in historical times. In the same manner as Bunan was influenced by Tibetan, the other two languages of Lahoul (Manchat and LTinan) were influenced later on by Aryan Indian languages; Bfor the neighbouring States of Kulu and Chamba were {conquered by Aryan tribes, the intercourse with whom ■brought the introduction of many Aryan loan-words. I As with the languages, so it is with the religious customs of Lahoul. They also represent a very mixed state of things. There is a certain ancient custom which is observed Ktowadays only in Manchat, and which probably goes back to old Mundari times. It is the custom of putting up a »Sab of stone by the roadside in commemoration of a (deceased person. These may be seen near every village pn Manchat. Those erected more recently have a spot Ismeared with oil in the middle. Many of the stones are feuite plain, but there are some which have a rock-carving ■«presenting a human figure in the centre, and others again Biave a sculpture representing the deceased person, in relief. »The last phase in the development of the originally plain [Commemorative stone is found in the village temples. There Iwe see laTge slabs of stone on which are carved often Bnore than ten persons in a row. They are well bathed Pn oil. On making my special inquiry, the natives told 188 A HISTORY OF WĽSTERN TIBET me that at irregular periods all the rich families who had lost a member through death had to combine and give a great feast to the whole village. In recognition of this, a slab containing the never-flattering portraits of the dead is placed in the village temple. The more ancient of these slabs are of a certain anthropological interest, as they represent the people of Lahoul in their original costume. In the olden days people wore nothing but a little frock, reaching from the loms to the knees, and the chiefs (apparently) had a head-dress of feathers, similar to that of the North American Indians. This kind of dress we Find represented on very old commemorative slabs a. Triloknath, and on a rock-carving of a man hunting wild sheep near Kyelang. The wild sheep (Shapo) has been extinct in Lahoul for many centuries, and it is only through this rock-carvmg that we know of its former existence in Lahoul. The most ancient religion of Lahoul was probably .phallus and snake worship—the two representing the creative powers of the sun and water. As regards the phallus worship, we have to distinguish between the original custom, which was satisfied with a raw stone of phailus-shape put up in a little grove or beside the door of a village temple, and the modern Hindu custom. The former is still the most common form of phallus worship in the country. But in Manchat there may also be seen a few well-polished phallus stones, which were introduced when the modem form of Hinduism gained some ground m the country. The upper end of the ancient phallus stones is smeared with oil or butter, whilst the modern ones are sprinkled with water, as in India. The village temp!" are small huts with a sloping gable roof of shingles, an have a ram's head, the symbol of the creative power, carved at the end of the uppermost beam of the roo ■ APPENDICES 189 In these huts the most ancient form of habitation of the Lahoulis is still preserved. The peasants have meanwhile taken to the Tibetan type of house, with flat roofs consisting of willow branches and earth, probably because this kind of material can be obtained more readily. In a country where phallus worship is the rule, we can imagine that by the side of great licentiousness cruel customs are in vogue. And, indeed, popular tradition all over the country speaks of human sacrifices which were offered in order to ensure a good harvest. The custom reminds us strongly of that prevailing until quite recently among the Khonds of India. At Kyelang the following story is told with regard to the last human sacrifice :