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0380 Southern Tibet : vol.1
Southern Tibet : vol.1 / Page 380 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000263
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242

LAGO DE CHIAMAY.

A i

much further. Here our lake has not only definitely begun, but also partly accomplished its homeward journey. To evacuate and extinguish the lake basin altogether has been too much for Ides, and his Caor Flu., Cosminus Flu., Capoumo Flu., and Menamis Flu. still take their origin in the old traditional lake of Barros . But he has changed its name into Lac Kananor et Cunabetee. The latter name, whatever its derivation may be, we have already found on Coronelli's map, the former, Kana-nor, may simply be a careless spelling of Koko-nor. For there is no other Koko-nor on the map, and Croce Lac includes all the lakes of Odon-tala.

But where is Lago de Chiamay ? It has wandered north-westwards and is one of the sources of the Ganges, in the middle of the Himalayas. With a slight change of spelling the name is the old one from Barros' days, Lac Giamai ! Both the Indus and the Ganges have two lakes at their upper course, and just north of both rivers Kabul is placed. The whole arrangement has a certain resemblance with Kircher's map and his Origo Gangis et Indi. The two lakes of the upper Indus do not, however, awake our suspicions, for the upper one is the Wulur lake, and the lower one is situated below Attock. So much the more important is the fact that Ides shows the Ganges as coming from two lakes, one in the Himalaya, the other north of the mountains. The one in the Himalaya, Lac Giamai, is the Manasarovar. On Ortelius' map, (Pl. XXII), we had two copies of the lake, both called Chiamay, on Ides' map we have also two copies, though only one of them is called Chiamay.

From where has Ides got his information, and what news has induced him to undertake such a radical change? The Jesuits in Peking! In his narrative he describes his meeting with Fathers GRIMALDI and THOMAS PEREYRA, and he tells us that none less than the famous Father Gerbillon served as interpreter at the audience which Emperor Kang Hi accorded to the Russian Ambassador.' The Jesuit Fathers no doubt knew a good deal about Tibet, which they have not described in their letters and books. Only a few years after the visit of Ides the Jesuits in Peking got a very good native description of the two lakes, Mapama Talai and Lanken, or Manasarovar and Rakas-tal, of which they were told and firmly believed that they gave birth to the Ganges, and to no other river. Why could not Gerbillon have got some earlier news from Chinese sources, and told Ides that in his opinion the Chiamay lacus was the real source of the Ganges, while Barros and Martini had confused it with another lake, the existence of which nobody so far had any opportunity to deny.

I In Recueil de Voiages au Nord, Tome VIII, p. 15o a chapter has the following title: L'Ambassadeur visite les Péres Jésuites de Peking. Description de leur maison: de leur Eglise: d'une colation que ces Péres donnent à l'Ambassadeur & à sa suite, etc. The audience begins in the following way, p. 134: »L'un de ces trois Religieux étoit François, & s'apeloit Pére Jean-Francois Gerbillon. Les deux autres, dont l'un s'apelloit Pére Antoine Thomas, étoient Portugais. L'Empereur comanda au premier de venir me parler, lequel aussitot s'étant aproché de ma place, me demanda en Italien de la part de S. M. combien de terns j'avois employé à venir de Moscou à Peking? . .. Ce Prince parla ensuite un moment avec le Pére Gerbillon . . .