1887.] The President's remarks on the same. 9 



merly known as Mary ill, and includes Ladak and Balti, in which are 

 «Les-»tkhar, the fort (7char) of Le, and the forts of sBe-thub and Kh ri- 

 se (in Purik), besides others. In Guge-Purang, is the great mountain 

 Kang Tesi, the Kailas of the Indians, and the sacred lake Manasarovara. 

 Hence also arise the four great rivers so frequently mentioned in Sans- 

 krit and Chinese literature. In the great Chinese map, prepared by 

 order of Khian-loung, the four corners or gates of the Mana lake are 

 called the lion, elephant, horse and ox gates : Toui-gochal on the east ; 

 Ghiou-ourgou on the south ; Arablco on the west and Dadza-loung on the 

 north. The Pandit explorers give the names Singh-gi-chu or Singh-gi- 

 khamba or Singh-gi-kha to the Indus, the Senge Jchabab of this paper : 

 Langjan-khamba to the Satlaj : Tamjan-hhamba to the Brahmaputra, the 

 Tsang-po of this paper : and Mabja-khamba to the montane waters of the 

 Karnali or Ghagra, the Mab-chya khabab of this paper. Gerard calls 

 the Satlaj, the Lang-zhing-clioo and J. Cunningham gives the name 

 Langchin habab. ' Sing ' is lion, ' lang ' is bull (not elephant which in 

 Tibetan is called ' great bull '), * mam* is peacock and l ta' is horse: 

 ha ' means mouth, and * bob ' means ' issuing from ' so that the names 

 agree with the legend describing these rivers as issuing from the mouths 

 of a lion, bull, peacock, and horse. 



The traditional report as to the great Bize of mTsho Mapham in 

 former times is probably due to the legend that its area formerly included 

 the neighbouring lake mTsho Lagan (or Lagran m-tsho as it is called 

 in this paper), the Rakhas Tal of Sanskrit literature. Amongst the 

 affluents of mTsho Lagan is the river La mtsho, the Z/ja-chhu of the 

 paper, which rises from the south face of Kailas (Kang Tesi) close above 

 Gangri and soon develops into a considerable stream. The pool on the 

 pilgrim track around Manasarovara, called Gauri-kund by the Indians, is 

 probably the same as the Tibetan ^Thung-grol, the fountain that gives 

 salvation to all who drink thereof. Both the lake and the mountain 

 and their vicinity are sacred to both Buddhists and Hindus. The circuit 

 of the mountain takes a couple of days to perform, and there are four 

 monasteries on the way : — Nindi the residence of the Lhoba Lama, 

 Didiphu, Jungdulphu, and Gyanktang in Gangri. The parihrama, or 

 circumambulation, of the lake takes from 4 to 5 days, and is marked by 

 eight monasteries : — Tokar, Gusur, Ju, Jakyab, Langbuna, Bundi, Sara- 

 lung and Nunukhar. As observed in the paper, the Hindus worship the 

 places and marks of the presence of a deity as representing Mahadeo, 

 in his various forms, whilst the Buddhists refer these places to their 

 Bodhisattwas. 



Guge-Purang is governed by the two Garpuns of upper and lower 

 Gar. These act jointly together and form a board for the administration 



