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

I IS   KAWAGUCHI.

the water from one lake to the other. I found, however, that there was actually no such channel, but I discovered that the level of Lake Lakgal is higher than that of Manasarovara, and I was subsequently told that, on rare occasions, every ten or fifteen years, after phenomenally heavy rains the waters of the two lakes do actually become connected, and that at such times Lake Lakgal flows into Manasarovara. Hence arises the Tibetan legend that every fifteen years or so Lakgal, the bridegroom, goes to visit Manasarovara, the bride.»

From his description it is impossible to guess from which point and how Kawaguchi made his surprising discoveries. To judge from his map he has not crossed the neck of land between the two lakes. He has got one perfectly true piece of information from the natives, which directly touches the periodicity of the channel between the lakes, namely, that every i o or 15 years, after heavy rains, the waters of the two lakes actually become connected. But the Tibetans were innocent of his discovery that the Rakas-tal should be higher than the Manasarovar and that the water in the channel flowed from west to east.

His way of thinking does not become clearer after his visit to Mabcha Khanbab, one of the tributary sources of the Ganga». Thus he attributes both the Tagetsangpo and the Kauriala to the Ganges. He adds that modern Hindus regard the »Haldahal» branch as the main stream but that in ancient times the Mapchu was considered to be the principal source. Therefore his views regarding the hydrographical importance and function of Chumik Ganga are very dark, or rather left without any kind of explanation. So long as he contents himself with the simple information he got from the Tibetans he is right, but when he begins to make physico-geographical speculations on his own account he is lost. If he had noticed that the channel, Ganga, between the lakes, is, in its upper part, east of the Manasarovar, called Langchen-kamba as well as, perhaps, Chumik Ganga, he would have remembered that Langchen-kamba is also the name of the great Satlej, and that thus his Chumik Ganga could hardly have anything to do with the river Ganges.

For, after his visit to Gyanima, he came, on August 28th, 190o, upon the »upper course of the Langchen Khanbab», which he rightly recognises as the Satlej:

»My companions volunteered to tell me that this river started from Lake Manasarovara. When I pointed out to them that the Lake Manasarovara was surrounded by mountains on all sides and has no outlet, they replied: 'True, but the river has its source in a spring to be found under a great rock, east of the monastery named Chugo Gonpa (the monastery of the source of the river), in a gorge on the north-western side of Mount Kailasa. That spring is fed by the waters of Lake Manasarovara that travel thither underground. Hence it may be said with equal truth that the river flows out of the lake.' This was indeed an ingenious way of accounting for the popular belief. But judging from the position of the river, it seemed to me that it must take its origin on a higher level than that of Lake Manasarovar and I was not (nor am I now) ready to admit the correctness of the native contention.» I

Here again Kawaguchi is not successful when he tries to improve the native explanation and he could easily have been ready to accept its correctness. The

` Up. cit. p. 159.