Contents: Introduction 7 1. Purig and Kargil (town) 16 2. The Advent of Islam in Purig 56 3. Astanas, Mosques (Masjid), and Matam Serais in Purig 63 4. Early History of Purig 92 4.1. Petroglyphs in Drass and Purig 92 4.2. Ancient inscriptions and stone sculptures of Maitreya and Avalokitesvara in Drass 95 4.3. The Avalokitesvara rock carving of Skitmartse 110 4.4. The giant Maitreya statues (Byams-pa) of Kartse, Apati and Mulbekh 126 5. Historical sources about Purig 149 5.1. Information about Purig in Mirza Haidar’s Tarikh-i-Rashidi 149 5.2. Information about Purig in the chronicles of Zangs-dkar 150 5.3. Information about Purig in the La-dvags rgyal-rabs, in Moghul sources and legal documents 151 5.3.1. Sixteenth Century 151 5.3.2. Seventeenth Century 152 5.3.2.1 Excursus on Kanji, Henasku, sTag-tse, Bod Kharbu and Shakar-Cigtan 153 5.3.2.1.1 Kanji 153 5.3.2.1.2.Henasku 156 5.3.2.1.3 Bod Kharbu 161 5.3.2.1.4 sTag-rtse 174 55.3.2.1.5 The valley of Cigtan 180 5.3.3 Eighteenth and early nineteenth Century 194 5.3.3.1 A royal charter of king bKra-shis rnam-rgyal addressed to jo Hasan Khan of Shakar (1751) 198 5.3.3.2 Excursus on the chiefdom of Sod 203 5.3.3.3 The panchayats of the block Kargil which did not belong to Sod in the 17 th and 18 th century 226 5.3.3.4 Excursus on the political units of the Suru valley 235 5.3.3.4.1 Tai Suru (~ De Su-ru, the upper Suru valley) 235 5.3.3.4.2 The chiefdom Kartse (dKar-rtse) 260 5.3.3.4.3 The chiefdom Blon-che 281 5.3.3.5 Excursus on the chiefdom of Paskyum 284 5.3.3.6 Excursus on the valley of Phu-dkar 288 5.3.3.7 Excursus on Wakha and Mulbekh 300 5.3.4 The conquest of Purig by the Dogras303 6. Some remarks about the demography of Purig 308 Bibliography 310 Index of personal names, place names, titles of literary works and terms 313weiterlesen