96 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [March, 1910 



latter, and also contains ruins of a castle, as I am told- I 

 have not yet had an opportunity to visit the place. On the 

 maps it is called Umleh. Two other place names of gNya 

 khri btsanpo's kingdom which are mentioned together 

 are rGod Mod and gYur Idod. The word Idod I cannot 

 find in the dictionaries, but it seems to mean ' district/ 

 rGod Idod is the rGod district. Now there is a rGod yul (rGod 

 country) within the present limits of Ladakh. It is mentioned 

 in K. Marx's version of the rGyal rabs, in connection with Sengge 

 rnamrgyaV s reign. The rGodyul is the eastern part of Ladakh, 

 or the territory of Hanle, as stated by K. Marx. All these 

 eastern parts of Ladakh, Shagti, Nyoma, etc., were once strongly 



fortified against the invasions of the Turks, as their grand 



ruins show. Therefore it is quite in the nature of things that 

 the first king of Tibet should have posted there a guard against 

 outside foes. 



gYur Idod means the district of gYuru. The name 

 gYuru is the abbreviated form of ancient gYung drung (the 

 Lama Yuru of the maps). When the Ladvags rGyal rahs was 

 written, the ancient spelling gYung drung had already been 

 replaced by the modern gYuru. The place gYur Idod was 

 the centre of the first king's inner administration. This is 

 quite in accordance with the central situation of the place. 

 g Yuru (Lama yuru is a modern invention) seems to have been a 

 foremost place in ancient times. It is still called the ancient 

 centre of the Bon religion, and I was so fortunate as to dis- 

 cover the ruined Bonpo temple in the place. 



Another important place in gNya khri btsanj>o's em- 

 pire was Rongdo where his granaries were. There are two 

 places called Rongdo within the limits of Kashmir Tibet. 

 The western province of Baltistan is called Rongdo, and a 

 village in the Nubra valley is called by the same name. I 

 am convinced that the latter is meant. There is a con- 

 venient pass from Phyi dbang into Nubra, and the Nubra vil- 

 lage of Rongdo is found almost on the northern opening of 

 the Phyi dbang pass. On the maps it is called Rongdu. 



The five names of chiefs given in the account, we cannot 

 expect to find anywhere on maps. gTso means simply ' Lord, ' 

 bTsan khyung is a personal name of the Bon religion, sNums is 

 a house name still extant at Khalatse, Khustegs is a family 

 name, and gNyara rise may be another house name. 



As regards the general state of civilisation of the country, 

 the description suits Ladakh very well , whilst it does not suit 

 Lhasa. The art of writing is stated to have been known. In 

 Ladakh it has actually been known since c. 250 B. C. going by 

 rock-inscriptions. Agriculture has existed in the country 

 since those remote times when the Gilgit Dards founded their 

 colonies in Ladakh. 



Now it may be said that there is nothing extraordinary 



