IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE WALNUT 261
tar.' This apparently is a loan-word received from the Tibetan, for in Sarigoli and other Pamir dialects we find the Iranian word gh5z.2 Tarka is a genuine Tibetan word relating to the indigenous walnut, wild and cultivated, of Tibetan regions. In view of this state of affairs, it is certainly possible that the Chinese, in the beginning of the fourth century or somewhat earlier, received walnuts and their seeds also from Tibetan tribes, which resulted in the name K`ian t`ao. The Lepcha of Sikkim are acquainted with the walnut, for which they have an indigenous term, k61-pet, and one of their villages is even called "Walnut-Tree Foundation" (K61-bah) .3
G. WATT4 informs us that the walnut-tree occurs wild and cultivated in the temperate Himalaya and Western Tibet, from Kashmir and Nubra eastwards. W. ROXBURGH6 says about Juglans regia, "A native of the mountainous countries immediately to the north and north-east of Hindustan, on the plains of Bengal it grows pretty well, but is not fruitful there." Another species of the same genus, J. plerococca Roxb., is indigenous in the vast forests which cover the hills to the north and east of the province of Silhet, the bark being employed for tanning, while J. regia is enlisted among the oil-yielding products.' J. D. HOOKER7 is authority for the information that the walnut occurs wild in Sikkim, and is cultivated in Bhûtan, where also Captain TURNERS found it growing in abundance. KIRKPATRICK9 met it in Nepal. In Burma it grows in the Ava Hills. In the Shan states east of Ava grows another species of Juglans, with smaller, almost globose, quite smooth nuts, but nothing is known about the tree itself.Io
The Tibetans certainly cultivate the walnut and appreciate it
' R. B. SHAW, On the Ghalchah Languages (Journal As. Soc. Bengal, 1876, p. 267), writes the word tor. A. HUJLER (The Languages Spoken in the Western Pamir, p. 36, Copenhagen, 1912) writes tar, explaining the letter a as a "dark deep a, as in the French pas."
s W. TOMASCHEK (Pamirdialekte, p. 790) has expressed the opinion that Waxy tor, as he writes, is hardly related to Tibetan star-ga; this is not correct.
3 G. MAINWARING, Dictionary of the Lepcha Language, p. 3o. Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Vol. IV, p. 55o. b Flora Indica, p. 670.
s N. G. MUKERJI, Handbook of Indian Agriculture, p. 233.
7 Himalayan Journals, p. 235; also RISLEY, Gazetteer of Sikkim, p. 92 (compare DARWIN, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, Vol. I, p. 445).
8 Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama, p. 273. Also EDEN and PEMBERTON (Political Missions to Bootan, p. 198, Calcutta, 1895) mention the walnut in Bhutan.
9 Account of Nepaul, p. 81.
'0 S. KURZ, Forest Flora of British Burma, Vol. II, p. 490 (Calcutta, 1877).
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