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

J. KLAPROTH AND CSOMA DE KOROS.   6r

première source du Setledj se trouve donc bien dans le lac Mansaroar, et non pas dans le Ravanhrad. Votre commission a pensé qu'il convenait de revendiquer en faveur des savans voyageurs français et allemands le mérite de ces découvertes géographiques.

This protest is only partly correct. But it also contains grave mistakes, and this is not the only case where the learned Klaproth was mistaken in his geographical speculations. He regards Tieffenthaler and Anquetil du Perron as more reliable authorities than the Lama surveyors and Moorcroft, although the two first-mentioned had never been to the place. He blames Moorcroft for denying the existence of the channel, although Moorcroft was one of the most reliable travellers who ever visited Tibet. He is correct in saying that the Satlej goes out from the Manasarovar and flows through the Rakas-tal, but he forgets that the Lamas had represented the hydrography exactly in the same way, although they mistook the river for the Ganges, instead of the Satlej. He blames the Jesuits for calling the lake Mapama instead of Mapinmou which, he says, is its Tibetan name.'

Klaproth did not understand the periodicity of the effluent, for if he had he would have been more careful regarding Moorcroft. Ritter, who quotes only JvIoorcroft in his description of the lakes, as Moorcroft was the »single eyewitness'', is more clear-sighted. Comparing the information on the effluent to the Rakas-tal obtanined by Webb, with Moorcroft's observations, Ritter concludes that the effluent is periodical.' The protest of Klaproth and Vivien de Saint-Martin only proves that geographical discoveries are seldom made at home, and that the observations macle at the very place by such men as Moorcroft should not simply be denied.

I cannot desist from quoting here an extract from a description of Tibet which, some 85 years ago, was regarded as a very important source, and still may be remembered as classical on account of the great name of its author: ALEXANDER CSOMA DE KÖRÖS : 3

The whole of Tibet occupies high ground, and lies among snowy mountains. Hence it is called in Tibetan books, by several poetical names, expressive of snow, ice, or frozen snow, cold, and high elevation. The highest ground in Tibet is in Nari, especially the peak called Tisé or Tésé, in Tibetan, and Kailasa in Sanscrit, about 8o' E longitude, and 34° N latitude. The sources of the Indus, Setledge, Gogra and the Brahmaputra rivers are in Nari. There are several large lakes also.»

And further:

'There are also in Nåri very extensive deserts. The inhabitants dwell in tents made of hair cloth; exercise a pastoral life, without any agriculture.»

I From the Tibetans I never heard any other name than Tso-mavang or Tso-mavam, which comes nearer to Mapama than to Mapinmou. Sometimes it is called Tso-rinpoche or The Sacred Lake.

2 Dass der Ausfluss periodisch seyn sollte, hatte man auch Webb gesagt. Ritter, Bd. II, p. 66o, 663.

3 »Geographical Notice of Tibet.» Journal o. t. Asiatic Society of Bengal N:o 4. April 1832, p. 121, et seq.