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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

I 28   THE LAKES AND SOURCES DESCRIBED BY MODERN COMPILATORS.

what when he immediately afterwards adds that the »Di Chhu of East Tibet is also affirmed to start from Chargyut Ts'o in North Central Tibet».

He reminds us of the fact that Nain Sing in his route survey noted a stream from the N. W. horn of the lake, which he designated as the Satlej.1 And then he has the interesting information, on what authority I do not know, that the natives of the N. W. corner of Langak-tso call the point, where the river used to issue, the chhu-go» or 'river-door», and that the Himalayan traders call it the »nikås» or »outlet of the lake». If this be right it proves that the Rakas-tal is still, at least by some natives, regarded as belonging to the Satlej-system. He enumerates all the feeders of the I\'Ianasarovar he knows and concludes that with so large an affluence, it should not be surprising if the lake had an effluence. The fact that the Pundit of 186869 agreed rather with Moorcroft than with Strachey, has, in Sandberg's opinion, not much weight, as his attention was not called to the point until he returned, and therefore Sandberg has more confidence in Strachey. And still he has given the only and absolutely correct hydrography in the following words : 2 On the whole, admitting the definite evidence of the Strachey brothers, it may be said that a small river quits the eastern lake at its N. W. angle, and after a 4 mile's course enters the eastern side of the western lake, but only intermittently.>>

The ordinary Tibetan names for the lakes he has found to be Ts'o-mo Må-pang and Ts'o Lang-gak, but in literature they are called Ts'o Ma-p'am and Ts'o La-gran, while together they are styled Madrospa or that which does not grow warm».3 The name Lågan is also heard in common talk. The translation of Må-pang is Peacock's breast and of Lang-gak Bull's throat, which also points to the fact that the lake belongs to Lang-then kamba or Satlej. Sometimes it is said to be called Woma Ts'o or ;>milk lakes, which I never heard for this lake, but certainly for others.

The names he has found for the rivers going clown from the neighbourhood of Kailas to Rakas-tal, are Khd-lap Chhu and Jom Chhu, whereas Strachey heard the names La Chhu and Barka Chhu. Of the Kailas or Gang Tise,4 for which he has not found out the correct name, he rightly says : »It rears itself up rather to the

I Op. cit. p. 52.

2 Op. cit. p. 56.

3 Sarat Chandra Das writes Ma-dros-pa or Ma-dros mtsho; and adds that it is also known as 'I'sho-Ma-pham; ma-dros-g-nas means »that lives in water =- flan-pa swan, goose. Ma-pham he also writes ma-phaiî. Tibetan-English Dictionary, Calcutta 1902, p. 947, 948. E. von Zach has Ma-p'am ta-lai, Mapam dalai, »gigantic sea>, where dalai is Mongolian. — Lexicographische Beiträge III, Peking

1905, p. 134.

4 Sarat Chandra Das (op. cit. p. 515): » I'i-rtse or Ti-se name of a three-peaked mountain (fabulously described in Buddhist works) lying north of the Himalayas near Manasarowar lake. Beyond

its northern flanks is the residence of Virudhaka the guardian king of the West   . In modern days
Tise or Kailas is still an object of pilgrimage; and four monasteries stand on its flanks. During the past Ioo years only two Europeans have reached the neighbourhood of this famous mountain; Moor-croft in 1812, and Lieut. Strachey in 1846.» The foregoing chapters have shown that this last statement is not correct. — E. von Zach (op. cit. p. 12 5) has: Gang disri, gangs te-se-ri, snow-mountain.