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

THE DIAGRAMS OF RITTER AND GRIMM.

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From available sources Ritter places the snow-mountain Kailas in the N.E. of the Tibetan province of Nga-ri and gives it 9 geogr. miles in circumference. It is steep on all sides and from its eternal snow innumerable springs pour constantly down. It is considered as the highest of all mountains and is called the Oneuta in Hindu books. Round it are situated the four animal mountains, the k'hababhs, in the form of a horse (Tam tsiogh), an elephant (Lang tsien), a lion (Sengghe) and a peacock (Mabghia). I At another place' he says the Hindu name for the mountain is Kailas, the Chinese is Oneuta or O-neou-ta and the Tibetan is Gang-dis-ri or Snowcoloured mountain--, from which d'Anville's maps have got their Kentaisse. In his opinion both the sources of the Indus and the Tsangpo are situated on the Kailas, and from this mountain mass the Kara-korum stretches N.W. and the snowy ranges of Hor or Khor and of Dzang to the east, a question to which we shall have to return later on.

Clearer than words the diagrams, of which I have two reproductions, will give a graphic idea of the knowledge attained by European geographers about i 830, regarding the mountains and rivers of southern Tibet. • The first of them the upper part of Pl. VII, is taken direct from the original hand-drawing of the great Asiatic scholar, Carl Ritter.3 It shows the absolute and relative height of some prominent peaks. About the middle of the diagram we find the Plateau of Tibet with the Manasarovar, supposed to be at 14,000 feet. From its western end the Satlej issues, breaks through the Himalaya, and joins the Indus. The latter river has its source a little above and west of the Manasarovar. The Brahmaputra is supposed to start from nearly the same height as the lake and from a point just east of its eastern margin. It is specially pointed out that the transverse valleys of both the Indus and Brahmaputra were unknown.

The lower part of Pl. VII, is from a sketch by J. L. Grimm.4 The Rawen Hrad and :Manas Sarowara are at one and the same level. From the western end of the western lake the Satudra or Setlej goes out. The same relations are shown in a somewhat different form on another hand-drawn profile, by Grimm.5

Pl. VIII also shows a map of very great interest, not only because it is the reproduction of the hand-drawn original of the famous orientalist Klaproth, and there-

I Ibidem, p. 219.

2 Asien, Bd. II, p. 414.

3 This unique diagram is preserved in the Cartographical Institute of the Royal Library in

Berlin, under the number E. 574o. I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Dr H. Meisner, Director at the Royal Library of Berlin, for being enabled to enter not only these most interresting diagrams, but also several maps, especially those of Klaproth, Ritter and Berghaus, most of which will be published in Vol. III. Professor Meisner had these diagrams and maps photographed for me at Berlin. and Miss G. Scheele provided them with very detailed titles from the originals. For this valuable

assistance I express my sincere gratitude.

4 Höhen-Verhältnisse vom östlichen Hochasien, Entworfen von J. L. Grimm. -- E. i 20 (Pro-

file) in the Royal Library of Berlin.

Its title is: Höhen-Verhältnisse des Himalaya in Sirmore, Gurhwal, Kemaoon. — E. 5750

in the Royal Library of Berlin. The reproduction is only a part of the whole diagram.