116 
Karl Marx— Documents relating to tlie history of Ladakh. [No. 3, 
At that time, of Mar-yul Upper Ladakh 12 was held by the descen¬ 
dants of Ge-sar, 13 whilst Lower (Ladakh) was split up into various in¬ 
dependent principalities. 
At that time Ge-shes-tsan 1 * (was sent) to Pu-rang, where he asked 
and obtained the hand of Do-za-k’or-skyong. He married her and she 
bore him three sons. He now built the palatial residence of Nyi-zungs 16 
12 the Persian transliteration of the word QJ T is certainly not 
warranted by the pronunciation of the word in Ladakh itself, where everybody 
says ‘ La-daq’, but I am informed by the Rev. J. Weber of Pu in Kunawar, that in 
that district the terminal -E]<V’ is invariably pronounced like or ch in ‘ loch 
this may account for the transliteration in Persian. The boundary between Upper 
and Lower Ladakh is the plateau between Basgo and Saspola (Survey Map : Bazgo 
and Saspul). 
13 Ge-sar, the name of a fabulous king of Tibet, or more correctly of the ‘ Ling- ’ 
people (qJCT)j and champion of the Lamaistic faith. He is not in any way con¬ 
nected with the kings of Tibet properly so called, and in the annals of these kings, 
so far as they are contained in the Gyalr. s. m , he is referred to only once, viz., 
as one of the suitors of Kong-go, the Chinese princess, who afterwards became the 
O _ ^ V 
wife of Shong-tsan-gam-po (chap. 13 : ^T^OT^'). His wars against 
the Iang, Hor and the Chinese form the subject of an elaborate epic, the epic of 
Tibet. The parts relating to the Iang- and Hor-wars are printed and published, 
but the story of the war against the Chinese, I am told, is kept secret, lest the 
Chinaman should be too much offended by its publication. The narrative itself is 
not in metre, but in prose, but there is only very little of it, as compared with 
the number of speeches, songs etc. which are in metre. The ‘ Iang-war 5 is in 
the K’ams dialect, and for this reason difficult to read to us in Ladakh. The ‘ Hor- 
war ’ is much easier. The epic is popular throughout Tibet, but people in Pnrig 
are said to know more of it than anyone else. In Ladakh the Bhe-da (professional 
musicians) do much towards its preservation, by rehearsing portions of it on festive 
occasions, to which they are invited to provide the musical part of the entertainment. 
Consequently most of the people are familiar with the names of the chief heroes 
and the general drift of the story, and indeed, if interrogated regarding it, will 
grow quite enthusiastic in their praises of the same The Mongol version of the 
story (Translation into German by I. J. Schmidt, 1839) is very different from the 
Tibetan version, inasmuch as it dwells mainly on the exploits of Ge-sar when a boy 
and young man. Still, it is possible, that the war against the Khans of Shiraighol 
and the‘Hor-war’ may be identical as to their subject-matter.—In a house at 
Leh, belonging to one of the old Ka-lon (State-minister) families, illustrations . of 
the story of Ge-sar may still be seen painted on the wall all round one of the rooms. 
—My own small collection of Tibetan MSS. includes parts of the ‘ Iang- * and ‘ Hor- 
wars.’ 
Translation doubtful. It depends upon the exact meaning of Ge-shes*tsan. 
13 Said to be in Pu-rang. 
