国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

SHAH BARAR. - MIRZA HAIDAR.

71

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ders of the fortress applied to one of the Rai of Hindustan who came with 3,000 Hindu infantry to help them against the invaders.

Mirza Haidar halted some days in a pasture-ground near Barmang, from where, having chosen out 90o men from the army, he set forth with them for Ursang. »From Måryul of Tibet to that place is two month's journey. After one month's journey, one comes to a spot where a lake is situated; it is 40 farsakhs in circumference, and on its shores there is a castle, which is called Luk-u-Labuk. We halted there for the night» On account of the difficulty of breathing almost all the horses died. Leaving this place, only a fifth part of the army was mounted, all the rest proceeded on foot. Two days further the province of Ham (or Hari) was plundered. »The people of that place assert that it is 24 days' journey into Ban-gala.» Only 90 men out of the 90o were now mounted. »With these ninety, I advanced and plundered a place called Askåbrak. About 1 oo,000 sheep, 20,000 kutås (i. e. yaks) and a proportionate number of prisoners and horses, fell into our hands. There remained eight days' journey from Askåbrak to Ursang. However, the horses of our party beeing entirely broken down, we were obliged to turn back.» Six days later they started for the west. Twenty days' journey from Måryul they came to a place called Tamlik. From there they had only two marches to Guga, from which place Mirza Haidar returned.

In a note I the editors point out the fact that the names from Ladak and Baltistan are transliterated with remarkable accuracy and that it is only in the imperfectly known regions of Tibet proper that difficulties arise. They found an explanation to this in the fact that too little was known of the geography of Southern Tibet. The editors had in vain tried to obtain some information from Desideri, and still some I 8o years later, he seemed to have travelled, »over almost exactly the same route as Mirza Haidar».

But even now, after Ryder's and Rawling's and my own expeditions in these parts of Tibet, it is not easier than in 1895 to identify the names. Tamlik seems to be somewhere at the upper Satlej, as it was only two days from Guga, which may be Guge. Ham or Hari is probably Ngari, in Chinese Ari, so much the more as it is said to be 24 days from Bangåla, in its widest sense equivalent with the Indian plains. Mirza Haidar travelled with an army, and an invasion of Tibet from the west can hardly be undertaken on any other route than the ordinary trade-route from Ladak, along the Indus to the Manasarovar, Maryum-la, and the Tsangpo. The lake halfway between Leh and Lhasa points also to the same effect. Its circumference of 40 farsakh is given at 16o miles by the editors. The real circumference of the Manasarovar is 48 miles, but including the Rakas-tal, we get some 90 miles. As a rule the oriental always exaggerates the sizes of lakes. Kardun may be Gargunsa, or Gartok. On the shores of the Manasarovar I have not found any name

I Ibid. p. 458•