IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAPTER XV.
ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM, THE SCHLAGINTWEITS,
AND OTHERS.
In this chapter I have brought together some information about the lakes and their surroundings, dating from the period between the journeys of the Stracheys and the journeys of Montgomerie's Pundits. Most of this information depends upon compilation or reports by natives, and only a few, rather meagre narratives are founded upon autoptic observation.
In his famous book on Ladak,l Sir ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM pays some attention to the region in question. He defines Ngari as embracing the whole of the upper valley of the Satlej from the Manasarovar to the crest of the Porgyal, and he subdivides it into three districts: Gugé, Gangri, and Purang. Curiously enough all his informants agreed that the Garo river was the Singgé-chu or Indus and that the N. E. branch was a mere tributary. By this he places the source of the Indus south of his Gangri range, which, he says, consists chiefly of clay-slate, gneiss and granite.
In chapter IV' he deals with the rivers which spring from the mountains round the Manasarovar: the Indus, Satlej, Gogra and Brahmaputra, or Singge-khabab, the Lion's mouth, Langchen-kha-bab, the elephant's mouth, Macha-kha-bab, the peacock's mouth, and Ta-chhog-kha-bab, the horse's mouth. Ta-chhog is the name of Sakya's steed and means »the best horse». The fable of the animals' mouths he explains as being of Indian origin, as the Tibetans know elephants and pea-fowls only by pictures, and because the source of the Brahmaputra, »or river of Lhasa», is ascribed to Ta-chhog, the holy steed of Shakya Thubba, or Buddha.
He finds it strange that the question about the real source of the Indus could by some still be regarded as an unsettled point, notwithstanding the distinct and explicit statement of Moorcroft, whose information agreed exactly with that which
I Ladåk, physical, statistical, and historical; with notices of the surrounding countries. London 1854.
2 Op. cit. p. 82 et seq.
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