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

WITSEN'S KNOWLEDGE OF TIBET AND CENTRAL ASIA.

203

Finally the following words of Witsen are worth quoting: »Lop is a sandy desert, which is situated to the west, and outside the Chinese Wall, beginning at the 37° N. lat., at the mountain of Imaus, where the city of Xacheu or Sachion is situated ...» I This proves that even so late as in 1692 the Imaus is confused with the Kwen-lun, and that the enormous highland of Tibet is practically unknown, in spite of the journey of Grueber and Dorville. This conception also agrees with Witsen's map, where Tibet regn. occupies a little corner west of Turchestan, and where only some detached mountains separate India from Central Asia.' I have expressed the opinion that Ptolemy's Imaus, Emodus and Serici Montes must have included not only the Himalayas, but also all the other parallel systems up to Kwenlun. Witsen, as all his predecessors since Ptolemy, has had the same view, and we have to wait still a few years before the mountains of Tibet decidedly begin to crop out from the maps, not simply as isolated border-ranges, but as one solid upheaval of the earth's crust.

Witsen certainly had a great influence on the maps of northern and central Asia for some years. I have inserted Pl. XXXV as an example of this type.3 On it we find several of the names introduced by Witsen. But there are also great discrepancies from Witsen. The source of the Ganges is much further north, and the sources of the Sir-darya still further north. Chaparangute is located at the very source of the now meridional Ganges, and north of it Turchestania comes in between India and Thibeti Reg., where Thibet or Tobbat is the capital. On Witsen's map Tibet, Turchestan and Tangut lay from west to east; on the present map they fall nearly from north to south. Tiobetz Ansky and Tebetzami are as before. South of the source of the Yellow River is a Belorum R., instead of Belor Mons, and south of it Barantol Reg. with its capital Lassa sive Barantola with the true legend: Ha c Vrbs Sedes est Summi Pontificis Tartarorum Occidentalium. It would seem bewildering that Thibeti Reg. is separated from Lassa by such an enormous distance, nearly the half of Asia; but Thibeti Reg. is, as so often before, meant as Ladak and Baltistan, and this country is placed at the upper Sir-darya instead of the upper Indus. In reality the Indus and Satlej describe a curve or bend north of the source of the Ganges, but on the map Pl. XXXV the source of the Ganges is some ten degrees north of that of the Indus. Ever since the time when Ptolemy was abandoned the exaggerated dimensions of the Ganges have been responsible for the horrible deformation of the whole interior of Asia. From all points of view Gastaldi's map of 1561, Pl. XVII, was far more exact than anyone of the later.

i Noord en Oost Tartaryen, p. 265.

2 To the i 785 edition of Witsen's work, P. Boddaert has an introductory note, in which he remembers Plano Carpini, Rubruquis and Marco Polo as »the three first travellers through whom Europe got knowledge of Tibet», and where Andrade is said to be the first to visit the country per-

sonally». But he has no correction to make to Witsen's views.

3 Magn Tartariæ Magni Mogolis Imperii Iaponiæ et Chinæ, Nova Descriptio ex Tabula Ampliss: Vin D. N. Witsen pro Majori parte aliis Auctoribus Excerpta et dita Per F. de Witt Amstelodami.

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