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

136

THE EXPLORATION OF THE PUNDITS FROM 1867 TO 1873.

Nakchail, and another called Riego», which Montgomerie unfortunately regards as off-shoots of the Kailas peak. »The Nakchail peaks appeared to be very high both on the east and west.» The Chu-sangpo is obviously the same as Sumnu Chu of the map: Tibet and the surrounding regions, edition 1906. It is identical with Sumdang-tsangpo or Lavar-tsangpo or the lower part of the former and upper part

of the latter.

From Manasarovar the Pundit took the great road to Shigatse where he was stopped. »Whilst marching between the Mansarowar and Shigatze he was able to take bearings to various peaks north and south of the road, which no doubt will add considerably to our knowledge of the mountains on either side of that route; but as the Pundit has only just returned, there is no time to give any further account of his route and adventures in the present report.» The results of these bearings seem not to have been satisfactory for, so far as the mountains north of the Tsangpo are concerned, the map in the Journal, Vol. 45, 1875, p. 299, is exactly the same as the one published in connection with Nain Sing's journey of 1865.

Another native explorer contributed to some extent to the knowledge of the Himalayan watershed and of the country north of the great Himalayan peaks.

In the discussion which took place after this paper Sir HENRY RAwLINSON said, »the essential point in the late discoveries by the Pundits was, that they seemed to afford a proof, or, at least, a strong presumption of the truth of the theory that, from Rudok to the northward, there were no mountains. It was originally stated by Moorcroft, and, subsequently, by other Tibetan travellers, that it was notorious in the country that there was in ancient times an Imperial road leading by Rudok outside the mountains to Khotan, in which case there could be no barrier at all. He himself believed that, when once the traveller crossed the Indus, and the inner or northern crest of mountains, he was fairly on the plateau of Tartary, and that the land descended gradually to the Great Desert, so that wheeled carriages might traverse it without crossing over any pass at all.» Therefore he found it infinitely important to carry the trade road to Shipki, after which »trade would soon avail itself of it, as there would then be a good road practicable for wheeled carriages not only across the Himalayas and on to the Tibetan Plateau, but, as he believed, passing by Rudok outside the Kuen-lun and the other great ranges, and conducting fairly

into the centre of Central Asia.»

It is difficult to believe that this passage was meant seriously. Carriages on a meridional road through Tibet! From the country beyond the upper Indus not a single pass and no mountains at all ! The trade-road should have gone through the countries which Hodgson had populated with Turki tribes and where Rawlinson had Klaproth's, Ritter's and Humboldt's mountains suddenly to disappear. The road should keep »outside of», or east of the Kwen-lun and the other great ranges. Thus

I Report on the Trans-Himalayan Explorations ... Great Trigon. Survey of India, 1868, p. VI.

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