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

I26   MANASAROVAR AND SURROUNDING REGIONS IN TIBETAN WORKS.

According to Laufer the seven mountains are obviously identical with the seven ranges which are supposed to surround the Sumeru in concentric circles. Laufer finds it not unlikely that these r i - b du n correspond to real geographical facts as conceived by the Tibetans, though this could not be proved — in 1898. He refers to the single then existing statement about the orography of the interior of Tibet, namely, the one given by CSOMA from native sources, that six mountain ranges were counted from Himalaya to the plains of Tartary.'

One should expect that a learned Tibetan Lama's description of Tibet should contain some important and striking facts unknown to the European geographers, but this can hardly be said of MINCHUL KHUTUKTU, whose rather short description has been translated by Professor V. VASILIEV of St. Petersburg.2 All that is known of the author, says Vasiliev, is, that in the twenties and thirties of the last century he was an Assistant to the Consistorial Administration of the Lamas and temples in Peking, for he died in 1839. He wrote a geography of the whole world, for which he got material from European sources, but to us the only interesting thing is what he has to say from his own experience about Tibet, a part which Vasiliev translated in Peking. The original Tibetan text is now in the library of the University of St. Petersburg.

To begin with the Khutuktu gives a general view of the geographical situation of Tibet as compared with India. One has to cross 9 black mountains before one arrives at a snowy mountain (Himalaya). »In the same way it is said, that on the other side of these mountains there is a snowy mountain, although several people regard this last-mentioned one as one and the same with Gans-ti-se (Gandes), but it seems more suitable to attribute this name, as a nomen appellativum, not only to the Gans-ti-se, but also to many thousands of other mountains, which are situated between Kapestan (Kabul) to the north, and Tson-k'a in the east, in K'ams, the native country of the King of faith, Tson-krap-a.»

He gives a general description of the country, which is rather chilly, and much higher than the surrounding countries. »The magnificent snow-mountains rise like monuments of the purest crystal.» He gives the names of some of them, as Ti-se and gNan-c'en-fah-lha, »And there are innumerable black mountains also.3 A great part of the surface is occupied by pure and transparent lakes: Ma-pram gYu-mts'o,

I In his »Glossar», p. 79 and 93, Laufer has the following explanations: Ti-se oder Te-se = S. Kailâsa; gaps dkar, womit man den Beinamen des Berges gaps ri vergleiche. 'fib. auch Ke-la-sa, Kai-la-så. Milaraspa nennt ihn rii rgyal-po König der Berge. — Ma-dros-pa = Anavatapta, der Manasarôvarasee. Auch Ma-p'am, Ma-p'am-pa, Mi-p'am-pa — — — — Sein Beiname ist yyu-mts'o Türkissee oder yyu-mts'o sinon-po blauer Türkissee. »Der berühmte See von Türkis» wird er in einem Hymnus des Milaraspa genannt ... Eine Angabe, dass der See neun Inseln hat, habe ich nirgendwo gefunden. — Nowadays it is well known that the lake has not a single island.

2 Geografia Tibeta, perevod is Tibetskago sochineniya Minchul Khutukty. V. Vasilieva. St. Peterburg 1895.

3 I. e. without eternal snow.