IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Across Asia : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
RECORDS OF THE JOURNEY
I made an excursion to-day to the village of Ma-chuang-tzu, about 40 li SE of Shuang- December 14th.
ching-tzu. I was keen to see the Tanguts who inhabited it, though nobody could tell me, Ma-chuang-
if they were »Hsi Fan zy» or »Hei Tan zy». The road ran over level, grassy ground with tzu village.
large deposits of salt. In 5-5 r /2 miles we reached the first of the widely scattered houses
that form the village of Ma-chuang-tzu. The inhabitants proved to be Hsi or Huang Fan zy.
They call themselves »Sarö Yögurs» — the yellow Yögurs. Of the inhabitants I only saw
3 women, I man and a couple of children. The women, whom I propitiated by the gift
of some mirrors, allowed themselves to be photographed after some hesitation and were
fairly talkative at first, but as soon as I got out my pen and began to take notes, they changed
as though by magic and became extremely reticent. The oldest one, a woman of about 5o,
had a dignified appearance and a Roman nose, the other two had prominent cheekbones,
small eyes, ugly, fleshy noses and altogether a coarse appearance without clearly marked
features.
We encamped close to a small impanj-like ruin which the Chinese declare to be Kal-
muk, next to a Yögur lama temple. None of the lamas were present, but that did not
prevent the Chinese officer, who had escorted me from Shuang-ching-tzu, mounted on
a donkey, from having my belongings carried into the cleanest of the houses that sur-
rounded the temple. When the lamas returned, they accorded me rather a cool reception
at first, but they soon grew hospitable and talkative, especially my host. There were 7
or 8 of them, each one living in a comfortable house of 2 or 3 rooms built and furnished
in Chinese style. According to their own statement, they earn their livelihood by cattle-
farming and chopping wood. The contributions made by the local people for the prayers
they say are small. They bring up some boys to be lamas, distributing them among the
quarters of the different lamas. Only the lamas are able to read and write, but they use
the Tangut language for writing. I saw some papers written by the lamas at Gumbum which,
however, they were unable to decipher. They explained that the Tangut lamas had two
written languages, of which they only knew one. They did not know of a written Yögur
language, nor could they tell me anything of their past history, princes, wars etc. It had
been handed down from father to son that their people had come from the west over i,000
years ago and that their town was called Shidsja hadsje (in Chinese Tchenfu tun) far in
the west. Tchenfu tun was supposed to lie 45 days' journey to the west or south-west
near high mountains and a river. They had had a temple with many caves on the moun-
tains. The mountains surrounded Tchenfu tun. Another man told me that they had removed
to this place during the time of the Emperor Kangsi, because cholera raged in their country.
Part of the tribe had settled in the mountains, another in the plain. Those who had settled
near Suchow had become quite Chinese. The others had retained their language. The
small ruin near the temple was already in existence at that time and belonged to a tribe
with tails called »Kuzyrkei».
Their village contained about 4o houses. About 8o li further E lies the village of Tung-
hei-tzu, also with 40-50 houses and a temple. It is inhabited by the Huang Fanzy. There
are Huang Fanzy who speak the same language at a place called Yumashan, about 6o li S of
Gaotai. The same people live further south at Bajakhtagh and in the country and mountains
) 445 (
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