IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
56o
Baltistan »the Kailas Range» after a peak situated hundreds of miles away and not even on the very range itself. Dr. NEVE certainly had a feeling of the absurdity of the name and he has therefore proposed the name of Saltoro Range, so much the more as it is indeed a part of the Kara-korum system, But as the name Kailas Range has some traditional raison d'être, and as it has been introduced in the geographical terminology under the strong authority of Burrard, it may remain on the maps. But under no condition beyond Surnge-la ! For to pretend that the snow-covered peaks of Lunpo-gangri and Kanchung-gangri or even of the Targo-gangri were parts of the »Kailas Range» would be absurd. Nor has such an absurdity in any way been maintained or defended by Burrard.
I would therefore propose to call the system the Kailas Range from its beginning in the west to Surnge-la, and thence eastwards to its end, the Transhimalaya.
THE TRANSHIMALAVAN RANGES.
THE TRANSHIMALAYA.
As a short introduction to the following description of the Transhimalaya I will quote a few words which I wrote in the summer of 1905 just before starting upon my last expedition to Tibet:'
». . . it would be labour wasted to attempt to define the ranges in the heart of Central Tibet, and in the country between Nain Singh's route and the valley of the Tsangpo. In fact, the results of any such attempt would have to be constructed to such a great degree upon guesswork that they might with justice be pronounced valueless, or at all events useless for scientific purposes.»
And further:
»In the unknown region of the south, that is to say in the country immediately north of the valley of the Tsangpo, we have reason to suppose the existence of an important mountain-range, one part of which is the Nin-cheng-tang-la on the southern shore of the Tengri-nor; and the same important range we find again also in the west, namely in the Alung-gangri swelling. These two sections would, it is true, not be sufficient to warrant us in positing the existence of a continuous range, but we are also justified in presupposing, almost of necessity, the existence of at least one important water-dividing ridge between Nain Singh's lakes and the Tsangpo. We may further take it that the most north-easterly of the head-feeders of the Indus likewise gathers its waters out of this unknown and mysterious range.»
These words prove how little was in reality known of the country north of
the Tsangpo.
I Scientific Results, Vol. IV, Stockholm 1907, p. 539 and 545•
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