IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.4 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
COMMENTS ON THESE JOURNEYS. A-K-'S JOURNEY.
471
»A week's march carried the Pundit over ninety miles of the Chang-tang to the notable monastery of Shiabden. Up to this place and for about as far again
onwards, the route lay through numerous encampments of Tibetan nomads, who dwell in tents covered with the black hair of the yak. The Pundit estimates the number of tents which he passed in this region as about 7000. But for the remaining 24o miles the Chang-tang was entirely uninhabited. The heights of his camping-grounds on the Chang-tang ranged from 13,500 to 15,000 feet; the highest pass crossed was 16,400 feet, on the Dångla range, which constitutes the water-parting between the upper basins of the Yang-tsze-kiang and the Mekong river. The route crossed the upper sources of the latter river — here called the Chiamdo Chu — as small streams taking their rise in adjacent hills to the west; it also crossed three of the principal affluents of the former river, the Maurus, the Ulångmiris, and the Ma-chu, each in itself a considerable river, and only fordable where split up into several channels; their sources lie in the lacustrine region to the west, probably far away; but at a short distance to the east they join together and form the river which Tibetans call the Dichu, and Chinese call the Kin-sha-kiang, and which eventually becomes Gill's River of Golden Sand, the Yang-tsze-kiang.»
»After a march of five weeks at this great elevation, the travellers reached
a range called the Angirtåkshia by the people of the country; it is the northern boundary of the Chang-tang, and is believed to be a continuation of the well-known Kwen-lun range of western Tibet. Crossing it by a pass of precisely the same height as the Lani-la, by which they entered the Chang-tang, they descended into the plains of Chaidam (Tsajdam), and in a few days found themselves down at a level of 9000 feet in a comparatively warm region.»
From the embouchure of the Naidschin-gol into Tsajdam A—K. — travelled the
same way that I subsequently did across the Tengeliguin-gol to the Kurlik-nor, and thence north-west viii Särtäng to Sa-tscheo. After making a prolonged stay in that city, he left it again in August 1881 and returned the same way to the Kurlik- nor. In the region of Dsun-sasak he came into contact with Prschevalskij's route of 1872: »Thence they proceeded to the Angirtåkshia or Kwen-lun range, which they crossed at the Namohan Pass, about 180 miles to the east of their previous point of crossing. They now found themselves again on the Chang-tang plateau, but in a quarter where it is very much narrower than on their first route line, only 140 miles broad instead of over 400; they crossed another Ma Chu or Red River,
Ïa one of the principal sources of the great Hoang-ho, and a range of hills called
Lama-thologa.» After eight days of marching they approached Niamcho and after another five days Thuden-gomba. Thence it was not far to Thom-budha, the village at which Dutreuil de Rhins was afterwards murdered, nor to Kegudo, likewise known from the latter traveller's journey. From that place the Pundit travelled south-east to Darchendo or Ta-chien-lu. From there to Batang he journeyed by the same route that Captain Gill did in 1877. And then, after making a long detour to the south, he returned to Lhasa, thus gaining an opportunity to confirm the identification of the Tsangpo with the Brahmaputra, not with the Irawadi. This part of Krishna's wonderful journey lies however outside the limits of our investigation; for it belongs to the peripheral region par preference, a region the main features of which alone
•
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.