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

30   D'ANVILLE.

Klaproth shows, not improved the map.' Pl. I is a reproduction of this map, which marks an epoch in European knowledge of Tibet. Here for the first time Eastern

and Southern Tibet have been well placed in relation to Central Asia, Szechuan

and India. The Indo-Chinese rivers come down from a world of Tibetan mountains, and it can easily be guessed that the upper Tsangpo is situated between two

tremendous systems of mountain ranges. In the west we find the excellent representation of the sources of the Tsangpo and the Satlej which has been dealt with before,2 with the only exception of the mistake about the origin of the Ganges. Central and Northern Tibet, on the other hand, remain unknown, and the Chinese material d'Anville has had at his disposition has not been sufficient to prevent him from the supposition that »Cobi ou Desert de Sable» continued without interruption from Eastern Turkestan to the neighbourhood of Tengri-nor. Western Kwen-lun and Eastern Kwen-lun are shown as two different mountain systems quite independent of each other. Eastern Turkestan is not nearly so good as on RENAT's and STRAHLENBERG's maps. Yarkand-darya is correctly shown as going the whole way through the desert to old Lop Nor, but Aksu-darya comes to an end at the town of the same name. South of Khotan is a Mount Kirian, which is probably meant to be the Keriya-kotel on the old road between Khotan and Lhasa, to which we shall have to return later on.

Of great interest is the legend at the end of Hotomni-Solon Mouren or Khotan-darya: Celle Riviere se perd dans les Sables de ce Desert demêrne que plusieurs antres. For if this legend were correct and if it were to be accepted literally the climate of Eastern Turkestan would be more humid now than in the days whence d'Anville has drawn his information. At the present epoch Khotandarya reaches, as we know, the Tarim during some weeks every summer. Curiously enough not a single tributary, on d'Anville's map, reaches the main river, except the Hajitou Mouren. But the latter is the river of Kara-shahr, Khaidu-gol, which in reality passes the Bagrash-kul on its way. West of Harachar (Kara-shahr) we recognise some other names, as Couroulac (Korla), Yantac (Yantak-chikke) and Yanghisar (Yangi-sar). The whole situation of the Yarkand-darya and Khaidu-gol

I Mémoires Relatifs à l'Asie, Tome III, p. 372. March 1834 Klaproth wrote to Berghaus, at his request, a letter about the Tsangpo-Irrawaddi problem in which he expresses no high opinion of the Lamas' map. He says: »Aus Duhalde wissen Sie, auf welche Weise die Karte von Tübet, welche sich in dem dazu gehörigen Atlasse findet, entstanden ist. Es geht daraus hervor, dass dieser Karte nichts als die auf derselben verzeichnete Reiseroute von Tschhing tu fu, über Lassa bis zum See Mapam dalai, und einige schlechte tübetische Skizzen anderer Provinzen zum Grunde liegen. Wie wenig auf ein solches Machwerk zu bauen ist, ist leicht einzusehen, zumal wenn man weiss, dass die Originalzeichnung der Lamas gar nicht graduirt war, und die Längen- und Breitengrade erst in Peking von den Jesuiten dazugesetzt worden sind, und das zu einer Zeit, wo man über die geographische Lage von Lassa gar nichts anderes hatte, als die sehr vague Angabe des P. Grueber ... Tübet ist also ein Land, über das man keine einzige astronomische Beobachtung hat, als die von Turner, und das auch eigentlich nie aufgenommen worden ist ...» Berghaus: Historisch-Geographische Beschreibung von Assam und seinen Nachbar-Ländern ... Memoir zu No q von Berghaus' Atlas von Asia. Gotha 1834, p• 175.

2 Vol. I, p. 267.