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 PILGRIMAGE OF A JAPANESE PRIEST.   I I 5

which also comes nearer to Kawaguchi's Mapham, than any other spelling, provided

that his ph is pronounced as f.

However, he continues to a place Pokhra, and over Kaliganga or Kali Gandak to Muktinath and Tsarang, »a town on a stream, and on an elevated part of the town stands a castled palace, in which lives the King of the Lo State», which as he says, was an independent state before the Gurkha tribe had subjugated Nepal. It is obviously the same part south of Kore-la which was called Lo Gyapo or the King of the South to me by the Tibetans of Tradum. He stayed at Tsarang nearly a year. Then he retraced his steps as far as Muktinath, and entered Tibet on July 4th 1900.

He relates that »Jang Thang» literally means »northern plain», but that in Tibet

itself this appellation is applied to its western steppes. He passed himself off as a pilgrim from Lhasa, and when asked about the object of his journey he used to answer that he was on a pilgrimage to Kang Rinpoche or Mount Kailasa. It is often difficult to follow his way on the very poor map, which is the roughest sketch imaginable, lacking geographical names, and absolute heights.

Having reached some tents on the northern side of the watershed, he was told

he had half a day's distance to a river called Kyang-chu or the Wild horse river, a large tributary of the Brahmaputra, which could not be forded without guides.

On July I 4th he continued due north in company with a Ladaki trader.

They passed through undulating land where snow remained here and there. They reached Kyang-chu, whence, about fifty miles to the N. W., he saw a great snow-covered mountain. »It was in that mountain that the river had its rise, and following its course with my eye, I saw it flow into and disappear in the upper part of another elevation on the south-east. The Kyang-chu was estimated at about 450 yards at places, but in rocky places it dwindled to 6o yards. The depth where they crossed it was 3 or 4 feet, »and another danger was from the blocks of ice floating down from the upper reaches, which we had to take good care to escape, for fear of receiving serious cuts.»

It is difficult to identify this river. It may be the Tsangpo itself, as no south-

ern tributary flows to the S. E. On the other hand his compass-bearings are very unreliable. The dimensions are obviously exaggerated and do not at all agree with the Kubi-tsangpo, which otherwise should be one of the few able to carry ice in the middle of July, although I did not see a single piece of ice in the river, even at the source. But the continuation of the narrative proves that the Kyang-chu can only be a tributary from the S. W.

Then he turned N. W. along the river and after 15 miles he arrived at a nomad station. Now he was in the district of Hor-tosho. Farther on he passed the Kubitsangpo and Chema-yundung, a part of his journey that will be treated in connection with the source of the Brahmaputra. From Chema-yundung he proceeded due north, trudging over snow for about 1 o miles, reached a grass-covered plain and