115 
1891.] Karl Marx —Documents relating to the history of Ladakh. 
Upper Nga-ris—Tibet proper being in a state of revolution 3 —and ac¬ 
companied by a hundred horsemen under the leadership 4 of Bal-ma-zug- 
tsan, K’ong-mo-nyag-pa (and) A-ka-wadzra, these three, (happened to 
be in so straitened circumstances) that he had nothing to eat but eggs 
and fish. Now (his servants) brought him (this dish) covered with a 
napkin. From this it has come to be a custom with the kings of Tibet 
to use the (so-called) ‘ Giant’s Napkin.’ 5 Eventually he arrived at 
Ra-lai-gyud. 6 He built K’ar-mar 6 in the Horse-year, 7 Tse-sho-gya-ri 8 
in the Sheep-year. He caused many villages and hamlets 9 to be built 
throughout the broad valleys of Dam and Lag. 10 Mar-yul 11 he left 
undisturbed. 
s. m.).—The word Lde, in this and other names, Koeppen (II, 52) assumes to be 
identical with lte-wa, ‘ navel, umbilicus, centre.’ I find, however, that wherever 
lte-wa has the meaning of ‘ navel ’ etc., it is never spelt lde, so that I feel inclined 
to search for another meaning of lde. 
3 Schl’s ed. has: IcpofEpfi)' A MS. (^CpQjeper Gyalr. s. m. |5apQjEl’ET A 
learned Lama, Ta-shis-stan-p’el (f Dec. 1890), informed me that in his opinion 
cs ~\r cs ' 
giJpQjEj’E) should be substituted. As to the meaning, there can be no doubt, that 
it is as given in the translation. 
‘ one hundred horsemen, whereof the 
most prominent were the three etc.’ Similar phrases occur frequently throughout 
these documents, also relating to weapons and turquois (p. 123), monasteries (Schl’s 
ed., p. 30a), etc. 
3 With the Rajas of Ladakh it is still in use under the name of Sang-K’ebs 
(cpvc; [*zpvf) ‘ cover of the hidden thing.’ 
3 Said to be a Steppe-district inhabited by nomads, beyond Ru-t’og; near it 
the ruins of an old castle, called K’ar-mar, still exist. 
7 These definitions of years without the number of the cycle of 60 are quite 
useless. Relating to human beings, the name of the year, in which they were born, 
usually suffices to determine their age, as their appearance and features clearly 
enough indicate through liow many cycles of twelve years they may have lived. 
But relating to cities etc., after the lapse of centuries, no such corroborative evidence 
usually is available, and hence the name of the year alone is no clue to their age. 
8 Not known. 
9 Several of the places, designated by this term and mentioned 
here, still exist and may be inspected any day. It must be said that they are not 
‘ towns,’ but merely ‘ hamlets.’ 
1° Not known. In the Upper Sutlej valley (map of Turkestan, 4 sheets, 1882) 
I find, however, the names Dam and Luk,—could they have any connection with 
the places referred to here ? 
It Mar-yul and Mang-yul, (according to Ta-shis-stan-p’el, derived from a word 
me-ru, meaning ‘bare rocks’) includes Upper and Lower Ladakh, Nub-ra (comp, 
page 122), Zangs-kar etc. 
