7. The Kingdom of gNya khri btsanpo, the first 



King of Tibet. 



By Rev. A. H. Francke. 



At present I am engaged in making a collection of Tibetan 

 geographical names, as I find them in Tibetan works on His- 

 tory and Geography. These original names I try to trace on 

 Tibetan maps compiled by Europeans, the Royal Geographical 

 Society's map, Sven Hedin's map, or Indian Government 

 maps. I must confess that these maps are still very incom- 

 plete. Although covered with hundreds of names, many places 

 which are of the greatest importance from a Tibetan point 

 of view, are entirely omitted. 



When I studied the Tibetan text of Schlagintweit's ■ Die 

 Konige von Tibet,' which badly wants re-translating, I tried 

 to trace all the places mentioned in the account of gNya khri 

 btsanpo. I, however, found the maps of very little use, but 

 my personal local knowledge of the ancient Ladakhi Kingdom, 

 which is now embodied in the Kashmir State, made it plain to 

 me that gNya khri btsanpo' s Kingdom, as we find it described 

 in the rGyal rabs, must be looked for in Ladakh. All the 

 place names, with the exception of dBus and Yarlung, can be 

 traced there. 



Let me first say a few words about these two names, dBus 



and irlung. dBus means • the middle.' It is used of a 



£>lace which is of importance, the residence of some important 



person. Thus in the first part of the Ladakhi rGyal rabs, the 



word dBus is used to signify Gay a in Magadha, for this town 



was of the greatest importance in the ancient Buddhist times 



on account of its connection with the founder of this religj n. 



In the later portions of the rGyal rabs, dBus is the name of 



the Lhasa district, because Lhasa had become the capital of 



Tibet. But I can well imagine that before Lhasa was made 



the capital of Tibet by Srong btsan sgampo, the surroundings 



of the previous capital P%t dbang stag rise were called dBus, 



the centre. The Tibetan inscriptions of Kunawar speak of 



Sarahan, the old capital of the Bashahr State, afl the dBus of 



that country. 



As regards Yarlung, this name does not fit in in any case, 



whether we place the kingdom of the first king near Lhasa or 



near Leh ; for the Yarlung is a river or a river valley of the 



Eastern Tibetan province of Khams, and even if the first 



king entered the country by way of the Ynrlha sham}»t. M the 





