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SEPTEMBER, 1906.)
ARCHÆOLOGY IN WESTERN TIBET.
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ARCHÆOLOGY IN WESTERN TIBET.
KHALATSE.
BY THE REV. A. H. FRANCKE. TN the pursuance of my daties as a missionary stationed at the little village of Khalatse, 52 miles
1 from Leh on the trade road, I have often to travel between these two places. My journeys have afforded me an opportunity of accumulating material of a certain archaeological and historical value, and my collection of historical records on rock and stone comprises at least 80 inscriptions, dating from c. 800 A. D. to c. 1800 A, D. Mostly out of this collection I now select some of the most interesting records and treat them in a series of articles.
INSCRIPTIONS AT KHALATSE. (A) The Rocord of the construction of the present Khalatso Bridge. On the left bank of the Indus, just underneath the end of the longer one of the two bridges, there is a boulder of granite with a somewhat polished black surface. Half of this boulder was blasted away in the most ruthless manner, when the bridge was repaired about three years ago. The inscription, however, oscaped destruction. The present Commissioner, Captain Patterson, has taken particular care of the stone, but there ought to be a law against the destruction by road-builders of any boulder bearing an inscription. On the above-mentioned boulder is an inscription of six lines. The characters employed are of the ordinary dBu-can type and very small, and have apparently been executed with steel implements. Like many other ancient inscriptions it can only be read when the Bun is in a certain position. The orthography employed in it (e. g., myig for mig) bears witness to the age of the inscription, which cannot, in any case, be placed much after 1000 A. D. Tibetan Text.
Translation. 1. brugkyi lo dbyar zla tha chungkyi thses 1. In the dragon year on the 10th day of the last bcupala rgyalpoi yab rgyalpo chenpo ....
of the [three] summer months, the king's
father, the great king .. . . 2..... cadkyi sku rnamsla blonpo.... 2.. . ..for all the bodies (idols ?) the
blonpo chenpo garkas kalatseyi zampa minister. ... the great minister byaspas
Garka having made the Kalatse
Bridge, 3. rgyalpo chenpos semscan thamscadkyi dondu 3. the great king made it for the benefit of all byaspa 'adila sus snyingla logps
creatures. Whoever thinks evil of it in
his heart, 4. Samsna snying ruleig lagpas regna lagpa chad 4. Let his heart rot; whoever stretches his hand cig myiggis log
towards it, let his hand be cut off ; whoever
harms it with his eye, 5. par byasna myig long shig .... sus 5. may his eye become blind.... whoever zampala nganpa byedpa
does any harm to the bridge, 6. semscan dmyalbar skyeshig.
16. may that creature be born (again) in hell!
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Note. Although the names of the royal personages, father and son concerned, are not given in the inscription, I feel almost certain that it goes back to the times of king Lha-chen-nag-lug, who reigned about 1150 A. D.
