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

THE UPRANG VALLEY.   47

north was called Sarikol (Sarik-kol). Seventy or 8o tents of Tajiks were said to be located at Tag-ha'uinbash. Stone huts are not used in these high regions. The inhabitants live under exactly the same conditions as the Kirgizes and have yaks, ponies, sheep and goats, and, of course, dogs; but no camels. Their language is Persian, although they also have a perfect command of Kirgiz.

Regarding roads the following particulars were given to me. Across the pass

of Hunserab a road goes in five days to Kanjul, though the great amount of water in the rivers makes it very difficult during the summer. The Uj»'ang-lavan which is high and difficult, can be crossed only on foot or with yaks. On its eastern side there is a road to Raskan-da;ya, which only at the end of September can be crossed. The valley going down eastwards from Upang-davan, is also called Uj5rang, and has at its mouth a Chinese karaul of II men. Here, as lower down, we were told that nomads travelling to Yarkand in summer always take the road by Tash-kurgan and Chicheklik. The pass of Ilik-su was not regarded as difficult, but the gorge at its eastern side, which has a brook going to Raskan-darya, had been destroyed by the earthquake. It is inhabited only at one or two places, where wheat is grown. Even if a traveller from Ilik-su succeeds in reaching the Raskan-darya he cannot continue, as the river cannot be crossed during the summer. If he continues upwards along the left bank of the river a four days' journey to a place called Kok-jilga, he has to cross Raskan-darya three times. This can be done only in the winter. By the Sänkar jilts a and its pass, which is comparatively easy, one arrives by Marian to Tong and Raskan-darya. In one word, the latter river blocks all the road to the east.

At the part of the Uj5rang valley where we camped, the winter is said to be

very cold and the snow sometimes to reach to a man's knees. If much snow falls the nomads go down to Masar, otherwise they remain in the region. The strongest and most frequent winds are said to come from the Hunserab Pass, and from the same direction come also the snow clouds. At Uj5rang rain is rare, and nearly all precipitation falls as snow. Not lower down than at Masar the greatest amount of precipitation in summer is rain.

The view from our camp at Ujrang was fascinating in its grandeur; to the N. N. W. the broad valley of Taghdumbash bounded by its snow-covered ranges, the Sarikol Range to the west and the Kashgar Range to the east, and to the south the magnificent snowy peaks and crests of the northern Kara-korum.

August I st was sacrificed for a visit to the Tajiks living in the mouth of the

Korum-jilga. As members of the Iranian race they have finer and more distinguished faces than the Kirgiz, and as a rule they are better dressed and adorn their women and horses with bright colours and ornaments. But as pointed out before, their conditions of life are otherwise the same as those of the Kirgiz.