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

TIIE FIRST INFORMATION OF NGANGLARING-TSO AND SELIPUK-GOMPA.   I09

the party skirted a large plain of a yellowish colour, said to be drained by the

Upper Indus.»

Several lakes producing salt and borax were passed, and after 9 days to the S.E. they reached Kinglo, a place on the river Chu-sangpo, which was so large that it could not be forded during the summer. »This river flows eastward and falls into the lake called Nala-Ring-cho, or Cho-Sildu, said to be about the same size as the Mansarowar Lake; it has a small island in the centre. The lake is reported to receive a large stream from the south, another from the east, and a third from the north, the latter draining part of the Phaiyu-Pooyu district. The lake is said to have no exit ... Then the party went S.W. to the Manasarovar. They followed the course of the Sangpo-chu (Chu-sangpo) nearly to its source, crossing one very high range called Nakchail, and another called Riego and finally descending to the Lake Mansarowar. The Nakchail and Riego ranges are evidently off-shoots of the Kailas peak.»

The Pundit heard that south of the lake was a well-known monastery called Shellifuk, the residence of a great Lama. Still farther south there are some high snowy peaks and the district Roonjor. North are the districts Gyachun and Girke, of which the latter was supposed to adjoin Phaiyu-Pooyu.

This passage is both important and interesting. To begin with, it proves that the Pundits never succeeded in going to Nganglaring-tso and Selipuk-gompa, and that no traveller had ever reached these places before I visited them in 1908. The Pundit's Chu-sangpo must be the Aong-tsangpo, in its lower part, and after the junction with Lavar-tsangpo it keeps the name of the last-mentioned river. The natives exaggerated when saying the Nganglaring-tso was the same size as the Manasarovar, for it is considerably smaller. There is not one, but several islands in the lake. The river reported to enter the lake from the south must be the Sumdang-tsangpo. The way back to the S.W. cannot have been very far west of mine in 1908; here they followed the Chu-sangpo and then crossed one very high range and then another range, probably less high. But it cannot be the same route as mine, for the names they give are Nakchail and Riego, whereas mine were Ding-la and Surnge-la, which were known all over this part of Tibet. On my road I never met any native who had heard the names Nakchail and Riego, which of course does not prove that they do not exist. Nobody would ever think of calling the two ranges in which Ding-la and Surnge-la are situated off-shoots of the Kailas peak. And wherever the mountains crossed by the Pundits are situated, they cannot have anything to do with the Kailas, which is south of the Transhimalaya.

At the Manasarovar, where the party arrived in safety, the Pundit decided to wait for a caravan for Ladak, which was known to be on its way. In the meantime the third Pundit mapped carefully the Manasarovar, during which he made the important

I Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, loc. cit. P. 54, and Proceed. R. G. Soc., loc. cit. h. 210.