IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
THE TIBETAN NAMES OF THE LAKES AND RIVERS. 129
south of the main Gang-ri range from which it is partially detached.)' For the 'Gur Lha Mandhata» he notes the names Momo-nangli (Strachey), Nimo Namling (Tanner), and Nyima Namgyal (E. J. PEYTON).
The four kababs or mouths, sources of the four rivers, Satlej, Tsangpo, Map-chu, and Indus, have often been mentioned above. The Tibetans regard these kababs as situated in gangris or ice-mountains, or, as E. VON ZACH has it, in glaciers. He explains the names in the following way.' The Langcin2 k'abab gangri, glangc'en k'a-obabs gangs-ri, is the glacier from which the water flows out as from the mouth of an elephant. Damcok k'abab gangri, rta-mc'og k'a-obabs gangs-ri, the glacier from which the water flows out as from the mouth of a horse. Mabjiya k'abab gangri, rma-bya k'a-obabs gangs-ri, the glacier from which the water flows out as from the mouth of a peacock. Sengge kabab gangri, seng-ge k'a-obabs gangs-ri, the glacier, from which the water flows out as from the mouth of a lion.3
T Op. cit. p. 125 et seq.
2 The c is to be pronounced as English ch.
3 Sarat Chandra Das is decidedly wrong in explaining the mouths of the four rivers, or hbabchu-bshi, to be those of I, Ganga, issuing from the mouth of a bull, II, The Sindhu, springing forth from the mouth of a lion, III, The Tsangpo from the mouth of a horse, and IV, the Satlej is called Rma-bya kha hbab because it is supposed to come out of the mouth of a pea-cock.» (Op. cit. p. 917). He has given the Ganga the title of the Elephant river, which belongs only to the Satlej, and to the Satlej he has attached the epiteton ornans that belongs only to the Karnali or Map-chu.
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17-131347 H.
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