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
,1,
CSOMA, ZIMMERMANN, HELMERSEN, AND OTHERS.
186
inhabit the southern parts of Nari , and give them in exchange yak, sheep , wool, woolen
cloth, salt, borax, etc.
With these statements from Tibetan sources the following that is derived from
Chinese sources should be compared. It is a little article on Tibet published the same year as Csoma's Notice on Tibel.' The map of the Ta-tsing dynasty is especially quoted. Only a few extracts regarding Tibet in general and Southern
Tibet in particular are to be inserted here:
Thibet is perhaps the least known of all the countries of central Asia, — — — — although not a little has, at various times, been written concerning it. We hesitated, at first, whether to include it among the colonial possessions of China or not: but our map plainly points it out as a colony; as does also the form of its government.
In the paragraph about the rivers the great mistakes regarding the Ganga and the Tsangpo are maintained, and for the latter v'ANVILLE is quoted as an authority:
Rivers. Thibet, like Koko-nor, is watered by several large rivers, and also by a great number of minor streams. In particular, it gives rise to the great river of Burmah — the Irrawaddy or Errabatty, named in Thibet the Yarou-tsangbo, and to the Ganga, formerly supposed to be the Ganges, but now generally considered as the source of the Indus. The Bo-tsangbo or Gakbo-tsangbo, the Khara-ousou or Noo-keang, the Lan-tsangkeang, the Mou-tchou, and the Peng-tchou, also have their origin in Thibet.
The Yarou-tsangbo-tchou, or Irrawaddy, is the chief river of Thibet. Its source is in the Tam-tchouk hills, a branch of the chain of Kentaisse or Kangtise-ri, on the eastern frontier of Ari. Thence it flows almost in the same parallel from east to west, for about i5 degrees, through the whole extent of Tsang and Wei; passing on the north of Chashiloumbou , and the south of H'lassa. As it flows from the province of Wei into that of Kham, it turns a little southward, and enters H'lokba, on the west of the Noo-e tribes; thence it passes for a short distance through Yunnan, and enters Burmah; where it flows in a S. S. W. course till it falls into the sea near Martaban. The Yarou-tsangbo was supposed by Major Rennell, in 1765, to be connected with the Berhampooter, and most geographers, since that time, have followed his conjecture, in preference to the more correct one of D'Anville. It is evident, however, from Chinese works, and from a variety of circumstances, that the Yarou-tsangbo is the Irrawaddy of Burmah; and it is probable that the Berhampooter has its origin in the Brahma-kound, among the barbarous and almost unknown tribes on the south of Thibet, whose country is watered by the Yarou-tsangbo. Perhaps, also the Mou-tchou, which rises on the south-east of the lake Yamorouk or Palle, joins the Berhampooter not far from its source.
The Ganga has two sources, Lang-tchou and La-tchou; the former of which rises in the lake Mapam-dalai, north of the mountains of Kangtise, or Kentaisse, between the provinces of Tsang and Ari, in about the 3oth, parallel of latitude; the other rises a little
farther northward, in the Senkeh hills. These two streams, after flowing about six degrees westward, nearly parallel to each other, in the province of Ari, or Ladak, unite and receive
the name of Ganga. Thence the Ganga takes a southern direction, for a distance of ioo or 120 miles, and afterwards turns and runs eastward, in a more serpentine course, till it reaches the longitude of its source. It then flows south-eastward, into the kingdom of Gorka.
I The Chinese Repository. Vol. I. Canton 1832-33, p. 173-178.
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