122 Karl Marx —Docimients relating to the history of Ladakh. [No. 3, 
(At that time it came to pass that) the Omniscient of the period of 
degeneration, the great Tsong-k’a-pa, Lobzang Dags-pa, 70 having in his 
possession a T’se-pag-med 71 about as long as a finger joint, which had 
originated from the blood of his nose, entrusted the same to two as¬ 
cetics, and said, ‘ Give it either to the one called Dags-pa or to the one 
called Lde.’ When the two arrived in Mar-yul, the one called Dags-pa 
was in Nub-ra. They went into his presence, but he did not deign to 
look at them with so much as one eye. So they went on to Leh. On 
the morrow the king gave command: ‘ At to-day’s Darbar, whosoever 
attends, be it ascetics, or Bhe-cla, 72 or Mon, 73 or Ti-slii, 74 he should not 
be refused admittance.’ Now when the two ascetics came into his 
presence, the king rose and went to meet the two ascetics. The two 
ascetics made over the present, and the king was delighted with it. 
Taking the precious law of Buddha for his pattern, 75 he built the 
Lamasery of Spe-t’ub, 76 though in reality he did not build it, but it 
came into existence by a miracle. Having built it, he caused many 
brotherhoods of Lamas to settle down (in the country). 
His son was (XVII) Lo-dos-ch’og-ldan. As to the reign of this 
king: from Gu-ge were brought: 18 coats of mail, 77 the most excellent 
70 Lo-bzang ( = pron. Lobzang) Dags-pa is Tsong-k’a-pa’s spiritual name (comp. 
Koeppen II, p. 118). 
71 ‘ Time without measure,’ ‘Eternity,’ an epithet of Gautama Buddha. 
72 Bhe-da: professional musicians of low caste, Muhammadans, of Balti extrac¬ 
tion. They, as well as the other low caste inhabitants of Ladakh, now may possess 
fields and houses. 
73 Mon: joiners and carpenters by profession, also of low caste, though not 
quite so low as the Bhe-da. They probably are remnants of the tribes of aborigines, 
but at one time occupied the hill districts of the Himalayas. Though Buddhists, 
the zamindars keep apart from them, and any zammdar who would marry a Mon¬ 
maiden would by doing so lose caste. 
74 Ti-shi: another low caste, shoemakers by profession. They also are 
Buddhists. 
75 This probably means : ‘ he adopted the reformed doctrines of Tsong-k’a-pa.* 
Tib.: pf - ‘to imitate.’ 
76 Lamasery and village, on the river Indus, five miles south-west of Leh. The 
Lamas belong to the Ge-ldan-pa order of Lamas. The Lamasery has an incarnated 
Lama (Sku-shog: b MS.). It is vulgarly called Spi-t’ug (Survey Map: 
Pittuk.) Other Lamaseries of the Ge-ldan-pa order in Ladakh are T’ik-se (Survey 
Map: Tikzay), Sang-kar (a Leh suburb), Li-kir, Ri-dzong and many small ones. 
N B. Although the ‘ Order ’ primarily refers to the Lamas, yet every family 
or house in the country is affiliated since time immemorial to one or 
other of the Lamaseries, and hence is attached to the respective Order of Lamas 
as a kind of lay-dependency, and worships the same tutelary deity 
77 Names given to weapons eto. are very common in Tibetan literature. They 
