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

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150   EAST INDIAN TRAVELLERS IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

short, though very interesting account of what he has heard of the mysterious and

inaccessible country.

»The Kingdom of Boutan is of very great extent, but we have not yet been able to acquire an exact knowledge of it.» It was only on his various journeys in India that he met people from »Boutan», especially at the market of Patna where the merchants used to sell the musk. Gorrochepour is the last city of Great Mogol in the direction of Boutan. He has heard of a road which is very difficult »on account of the mountains which nearly always are covered with snow, and of the great deserts one has to traverse in the plains.» The caravans need three months from Patna to Boutan »Five or six lieues beyond Gorrochepour one enters the territory of the Raja of Nupal, stretching to the very frontier of the Kingdom of Boutan» ... The capital of Nupal is also called Nupal. The caravans arrive at the »foot of the high mountains known nowadays under the name of Naugrocot, and which cannot be crossed in less than nine or ten days, as they are very high and very narrow, with precipices ... After passing these mountains one uses oxen, camels, and horses for transport to Boutan.»

To the south from Boutan are high mountains and narrow passages; »to the north there is nothing but forests, & nearly always snow; & both to the East and the West there are vast deserts, where one hardly finds anything but salt water . . »

This description of Tibet, which he picked up at Patna, has a good deal of reality. It is only curious that he has not heard the name of Lhasa, for his Boutan is obviously Tibet Proper. The tale about the forests is much exaggerated, but there is eternal snow on the mountains, and further north, in the deserts of the high plateau-land, numerous salt-lakes should indeed be discovered in later years. The road Tavernier describes is the same which was already known by Alberuni, I going through Nepal viâ Katmandu to the Tibetan frontier and further through southern Tibet.

About the same time WALTER SCHOUTEN travelled to the East Indies, and heard that Kashmir stretches towards the east between Great and Little Tibet. Z The city of Cassimir is described as situated in the middle of a great plain, surrounded on all sides by high mountains, »which stretch at least 9 or I o cos to the north». During November, December, and January there are continual rains and snow, and the mountains are covered with snow which gives rise to some great rivers.

Schouten therefore believed that the belt of mountains north of Kashmir was very narrow, more like a wall separating this country from Tartary. Some fifty years earlier Finch had a more correct view, for he speaks of nearly insurmountable mountains on the caravan road between Kashmir and Kashgar. On the

I Supra p. 55.

2 Voyage de Gautier Schouten aux Indes Orientales, Commencé l'an 1658 & fini l'an 1665. Traduit du Hollandais. Tome premier. Amsterdam 1708, p. LXIX.