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DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON HIS ITINERARY.   27

Ts ung-ling mountains (chap. V), or say that a journey of one month westward across the Ts ung-ling mountains brought him to North India .... ?

Lord CURZON in his essay on the Pamir also discusses the Chinese pilgrims' routes, and makes reference to all the different views regarding Fa-hien, where no two writers have agreed. He makes some critical remarks on RAVERTY'S hypothesis that »Fa-hien without doubt reached the present KashKar territory», and traversed the Kara-korum Pass, and on his belief »that Kie-sha was not Ladak, but the adjoining district of Balli». Finally Curzon says:

How, if Fa-hian crossed the Karakoram, he could have avoided Ladak, or how, if he came through Baltistan to Gilgit, he could have passed Hunza, or why any of these identifications should be accepted, does not appear.2

CURZON has a quite new theory of his own. The pilgrims travelled slowly, and their distances cannot be expected to correspond with those of modern itineraries. He points out »that the Thing-ling mountains is a name applied by the Chinese to the entire mountain mass, including the Pamirs, the Hindu-Kush, and the Mustagh range, as well as the mountain belt south of them, extending from Badakshan on the west to Chinese Turkestan on the east». Ladak, being on the extreme eastern fringe, could not be described as in »the middle of these mountains». The climate of Fa-hien's Ts ung-ling accords with the climate of the Pamirs. As his successor, SUNG YfN called the main Hindu Kush by the name »Snowy Mountains». Curzon finds it probable that Fa-hien did the same. Further he notes that Fa-hien a month after leaving Chieh-ch` a »speaks of having crossed Ts ung-ling, which he could only have done if coming from the north, and which he would nowhere be said to have done if coming from Ladak or Baltistan». Finally the remaining Chinese pilgrims generally travelled by the Pamir line whereas there is no contemporary witness to a Kara-korum route. Curzon, therefore, holds that Fa-hien travelled through some portion of the Pamir region, »though what track he followed, or by what passes he crossed the main range, we have no means of ascertaining».3

I Si-yu-ki. Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. II, London 1906, p. 299, note. Concerning Yü-hui and Chieh-ch`a he says in the introduction (p. XIV): »I cannot understand how either of the last-named places can be identified with Ladakh». Here Beal is more especially in opposition to the following words by Yule : »From Khotan Fa-hien seems to have advanced to the vicinity of Yarkand, and then to have gone south across the Karakoram mountains to Kiecha or Ladak, whence he goes down the Indus valley to Darail, Udyana (now Swat and the adjoining districts), and Peshawar. He thus did not enter on the Oxus basin at all.» — Introductory Essay to WooD's Journey to the source of the River Oxus, London 1872, p. XL. — In a note YuLe adds: »This is clearly shown by Cunningham at the beginning of his Ladak. Mr. Beal has unfortunately overlooked the passage, and has thus missed the key to this part of Fahian's route. The term Ts` ung-ling is by Fahian extended to the Karakorum and adjoining mountains.» — Ibidem. — The last passage shows that Yule included the Karakorum mountains in the Chinese term Ts` ung-ling.

2 The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus, Revised, and reprinted from The Geographical Journal for July, August, and September, 1896, p. 63 et seq.

3 Ibidem, p. 65. Col. Sir THOMAS HoLnIcH expresses a quite different opinion, as may be seen from the following passages : He finds it obvious that until they entered the Tsung-ling mountains they remained north of the great Trans-Himalayan ranges and of the Hindu Kush. The Ts` ung-ling was the dreaded barrier between China and India, and the wild tales of the horrors which attended the crossing of the mountains testify to the fact that they were not much easier of access or transit at the beginning of the Christian era than they are now. T`o-li he places beyond dispute at Darel. Chieh-cli a must be Kashmir, for »in the first place Kashmir lies on the most direct route between Chinese Turkistan and India ... Through Kashmir lay the high-road to High Asia ... In short, Kashmir could not be overlooked by any devotee ... Twenty-five days after entering the Tsungling mountains would enable him (Fa-hien) to reach the valley of Kashmir by the Kara-korum Pass, Leh,