180 Notes on Moorcrofts Travels in Ladakh, [No. 147. 



dooism, but they have no minute distinctions of caste. They rather burn 

 or bury the dead at some distance from the villages where they erect 

 gravestones ; some of them profess the Lama religion, but that properly 

 belongs to the Tartars. The goddess in greatest repute is Kalee 

 in her most horrid form, to whom human sacrifices were offered 

 at no distant period. I have heard of their taking place not more 

 than twelve years ago, (1806-10?), and they existed at the famous 

 temple of Bheema Kalee at Sooran, where the Bussehur Raja resides 

 in summer at a later time, and were not finally abolished until the 

 British Government got possession of the hill states in 1815. — Gerard, 

 p. 83-86. 



The Kunawarees proper, rich and poor, call themselves Kauits, a 

 class which in the hills appears to take rank next to Rajpoots. They 

 consider themselves of Indian origin, but they have no Brahmins 

 among them, and the hopes and fears of the Kunawarees are chiefly 

 placed on their local gods. In Upper Kunawar Bhuddhism has 

 taken deep root, but it has not yet overcome the reverence of the peo- 

 ple for the deotas or spirits of the hills. In all Kunawar there are 

 but three temples dedicated to a divinity of the Brahmins. One of 

 these is in the Bhotee district belonging to Bisseher, and is maintain- 

 ed by the Rajah in his frontier fort. The other two are at Ropeh near 

 Sungnam, and at Kotee near Chini on the right bank of the Sutlej. 

 (Captain Gerard, I observe, also places one in his map on the left bank 

 of the river a few miles above Chini). None of these three temples are 

 ministered by Brahmins, nor are human sacrifices offered to the form 

 of Kali {Chundika,) there worshipped. Sarahan, which contains the 

 temple of Bheemakali is not in Kunawar. There are, as I have said, no 

 Brahmins in Kunawar, and Lamaism prevails in the upper-third of 

 the district only. In the other two-thirds the people are without a 

 priesthood, and each village worships one or more equal gods. These 

 districts are under a prince of the Brahminical faith, but such a con- 

 dition of society offers a fairer field to a Christian Missionary than 

 the plains of India, where he has to encounter an organised priest- 

 hood, and the prejudices of a people satisfied with their present chance 

 of salvation. 



Caste, or at least distinction of race, is not unknown in Kunawar, 

 and one, if not two separate tribes appear to have escaped Captain 



