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

H. C. B. TANNER, ELISÉE RECLUS, GRAHAM SANDBERG.   125

The text, so far as the source of the Indus is concerned, does not agree with Reclus' little map, taken from Walker. For there the Kailas is situated on the water-parting range north of the lakes, and the Indus takes its rise from the northern

and N.E. slopes of the Kailas, far west of Maryum-la, and separated from it by another hydrographic system.

Speaking of the Lopchak Mission from Ladak to Lhasa R. L. KENNION, mentions the sources of the Indus and the Brahmaputra. He says that »their (the merchants') road lies along the banks of the Indus, but lately sprung from his cradle among the peaks of Kailas.» And further: : Passing on from here (Gartok), they will continue their journey towards the rising sun, through the land of Boongpa, 'where there is gold', leaving the sacred mountains of Kailas, the mystic sources of Indus and Brahmaputra and the famous lakes of Mansarowar, on their right hand, and so on to the great monastery of the yellow lamas at Tashi Lunpo.» 2 It is not surprising that he places the sources of the Indus among the peaks of Kailas, but how the Kailas with the sources of the Indus can be situated to the right of the road to Tashi-lunpo, is hard to see.

This is what the Rev. GRAHAM SANDBERG, B. A. said of the sources of the three rivers, in 1904:3

»The sources of the Yeru Tsangpo have not been visited as yet, though they have been pretty accurately located; but then the sources of the shortest great river rising in and flowing out of Tibet, the Sutlej, are not to this day absolutely known. Furthermore, it is still a subject of mystery and speculation where so familiar a river as the Indus actually takes rise. The origin of one branch is comparatively plain — it lies to the N.W. of Kailas and flows past Gartok. However, the sources of the eastern branch of the Indus remain unvisited. We have not yet seen a good diagnosis of their approximate situation in any authoritative article. Nevertheless, examining a certain old report or diary of a native explorer, we noted that he approached these eastern sources, though he did not positively reach them; but he gives the important information that they lie not far from Mariam La, in streams varying in situation and from io to 20 miles N.E. of that Pass, in a range styled Gangri Gurgyab.a4

Sandberg was a good scholar in matters Tibetan, and, so late as in 1904, he knew very little of the origin of the three rivers. Of course the whereabouts of the sources were known, but the situation of the very sources had not been settled, for nobody had visited them. Only for the source of the Indus had he searched in vain for even an approximate situation. The native explorer, who located the source of the Indus to the mountains N.E. of Maryum-la, was one of the Pundits.

I Vivien de Saint-Manin expresses the following opinion of the source of the Satlej : »Sa source probable est dans la chaîne du Kailas ou Mérou, sur le t ersant septentrionale duquel naît l'Inclus, tandis que le Yarou-Dzang-bo ou Brahmapoutra a son origine à l'Est même du Satledj. et le Maptchou ... au S. O. Cette source est à 55 km. ESE. du Kailas ...» Nouveau Dictionnaire de Géo-

graphie Universelle, Paris 1879.

2 Blackwood's Magazine Vol. 174, 1903, p. 379.

3 The Exploration of Tibet. Its History and Particulars from 1623 to 1904. Calcutta, London, 1904.

4 Op. cit. p. 4.