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

282

THE PUNDITS AND THE TSANGPO-BRAHMAPUTRA PROBLEM.

ry

than the Brahmaputra. In his first report Needham says: %I marched up alongside of the Brahmaputra the whole way from Sadiya to within sight of Rima, and I can

consequently positively assert that no river as large or anything like as large as the Sanpo flows to the southward anywhere on this side of that place.»' It is indeed characteristic that only one year before, Mr. ROBERT GORDON, who fought so desperately in favour of the Tsangpo-Irrawaddi, could write: »I find that those who take the opposite view as to the connection of the Irawadi with the Sanpo of Tibet, continue to treat the whole of the evidence unfavorable to them, as though it were non-existent.»2 This was the last attempt, except DUTREUIL DE RHINS', to defend d'Anville and Klaproth against the followers of the Capuchins and Rennell. General J. T. WALKER was present at the meeting when Gordon's paper was read, and he defended the right side; he said of the lecturer: »he lays hold of whatever tells in favour of his argument, and ignores whatever is against it.» 3

Already before this happened the German geographers had gone over to the right side, as is seen even in the title of a very able article: »Der grosse tibetanische Fluss in seinem Laufe zum Brahmaputra.»4 By the way it is said in this article that Nain Sing »travelled through the whole valley of the great Tibetan river from its sources in the Mariamla-mountain to the neighbourhood of Lhasa», showing that the greatest German authorities had got the impression that the sources were on the Maryum-la.

In the Report of 1886-87 Colonel H. C. B. TANNER has, under the general heading: Trans-Himalayan Explorations, an article On Explorations in Bhutan and on the Lower Sangpo river, where the narrative of the explorer K—p (KINTHUP) a native of Sikkim, gives a certain amount of information regarding the great river; he reached Onlet one stage from Mini Padam, near the place where the Tsangpo emerges from the Himalayas into Assam, and therefore, as Tanner says:

»I conceive that no further doubt should remain even in the minds of the most sceptical as to the identity of the great river of Tibet with the Dihang or Dihong, known lower down as the Brahmaputra.»5 K--p travelled in 1884.

Already in July 188o Captain Harman had sent a Chinese Lama and K—p from Darjeeling to Tibet. K—p had accompanied G—m—n on his journey in 1878 to Gyala Sindong, and now the object was to explore the country below that place, and to trace the river all down to the plains of India, or failing this, to throw marked logs into the river, which should be caught where the river debouches into Assam. The plan could not be carried out as the Lama simply sold K—p as a

I Proceedings Royal Geographical Society. Vol. VIII, 1886, p. 265. Needham's diary is published in Supplementary Papers (Royal Geographical Society) Vol. II, 1889, p. 485 et seq. together with a map of his route.

2 »The lrawadi Rivera. Proceedings Royal Geographical Society. Vol. VII, 1885, p. 292 et seq.

3 Compare also General Walker's: »''he Hydrography of South-Eastern 'T'ibet», with its interesting maps. Proceedings Royal Geographical Society. Vol. X, 1888, p. 577 et seq.

4 Petermann's Mitteilungen, Band 26, 188o, p. 14 et seq.

5 General Report on the Observations of the Survey of India Department, 1886—S7, P. LXXXVI. Petermann's Mitteilungen 1888. 34 Band, p. 221.