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

II

234   NAIN SING.

Tibetan name of the river, which is Tamjan Khamba (horse's mouth). From Tamjan there was a good view up the river for a considerable distance. The Tibetans all agreed in saying that it was the main branch of the river.»

The river itself cannot be seen very high up, on account of the sinuosities of the valley and the lower hills, but the Kubi-gangri is visible in the back-

ground.

Neither Ryder and Rawling nor I heard the name Tamjan at the confluence. Ryder calls it Laktsang on his map. I heard only the name Shamsang. But all

three names may easily be used for different camping grounds on the plain, where

the rivers join. Montgomerie correctly observes that this place, Tamjan Tarjum, reckoned from Maryum-la, is the first actually on the river. That is to say that only

here and not earlier, the Brahmaputra begins. Other rivers, belonging to its system, have only been tributaries. Regarding the river, up the valley of which he could see for a considerable distance, it is more than doubtful that it really was the Kubitsangpo. I have marked the lower half of this river on my map with a dotted line, because I saw only the confluence and its upper part. The Kubi-gangri is visible W.S.W., as correctly marked on Nain Sing's map. The Kubi-tsangpo comes down from the same direction. But on Nain Sing's map, »the main branch of the river comes down in a straight line from W.S.W., which agrees well with the lower two thirds of Chema-yundung, but not at all with the Kubi-tsangpo. That it is really difficult to judge from where these intricate rivers come is easily visible from Ryder's map, where, again, the directions of the valleys are quite different. Thus Nain Sing has, at Tamjan, seen the confluence or the place where the united Chema-yundung and Maryum-chu falls out into the Kubi-tsangpo. And he has believed that the latter river came from and through the valley which is in fact occupied by Chemayundung. He reports I that: »At Tamjan, on the 7th of June, the river was much swollen, its current rapid and water turbid», which is true for the point where Kubitsangpo comes out to the plain of Tamjan. And when the Tibetans said that this river, Tamjan Khamba, was the main branch of the Tsangpo, they meant Kubitsangpo, for the junction of the Chema-yundung is situated higher up. Therefore, as compared with d'Anville's map, Nain Sing's map has not at all cleared up the problem, but instead very much complicated the question of Brahmaputra's sources. His view became, however, crystallized in Europe for some 4o years, and in the meantime d'Anville's map became forgotten. And still d'Anville, or rather the Lama surveyors, had made a mistake very similar to Nain Sing's. They had also confounded the source rivers. They divided the Chema-yundung into two different rivers; the upper course was joint with the Kubi-tsangpo, and the lower with the Maryum-chu. Nain Sing believed that the swollen, rapid and turbid river he saw at Tamjan came from W.N.W., which is only the case with Chema-yundung.

I Loc. cit. p. 212.