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0197 Ancient Khotan : vol.1
Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / Page 197 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000182
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Sec. iv] POPULATION OF KHOTAN : CHARACTERISTICS AND ORIGIN 147

Taking the Tarim Basin as a whole M. Grenard is probably right in assuming that the process of ' Turkization ' was furthered far more by gradual absorption in the settled population of nomadic Kirghiz from the adjacent mountains, than by any of those great invasions from Mongolia.

This reinforcement of the Turki element by Kirghiz transformed into cultivators is likely Infusion of

to have had its importance for the northern oases like Kashgar, Ak-su, Kucha, which are blood in

within easy reach of the Kirghiz grazing-grounds in the valleys of the Alai and Tien-shan. Kashgar.

But it could scarcely have affected Khotan, which is far removed from those tracts and has nothing in its own mountains to attract or support nomads. Differences of this kind may well have helped to keep the Turki admixture in the Khotan population far lower than it appears to be in the northern oases. Such a variation in the extent of Turki infusion would best account for the distinct though not easily defined disparity in outward appearance which struck me whenever I had occasion to compare Khotânese and people of Kashgar. I am unable to test this impression by exact anthropological data, such as measurements on Kashgarliks would have supplied ; but I may in support of it suggest a comparison between the Khotanese seen in Figs. 22, 23 and the Mecca pilgrims from Kashgar whose photograph (Fig. 15. a) I recently secured on their passage through Peshawar.

It now remains only to examine what traces, if any, our historical and philological materials Tibetan

may preserve of that Tibetan element which Mr. Joyce recognizes as the second and larger admixture.

admixture in the racial composition of the people of Khotan and Keriya. Before, however, proceeding to this scrutiny it will be well for us to realize clearly what is meant by this ` Tibetan ' element. Mr. Joyce himself plainly tells us that ' the question as to what is the Tibetan type has not been satisfactorily answered '.17 Not only have there been up to the present practical obstacles to a systematic study of the race in any but the outlying frontier districts, but there appears to be good reason for believing that the population of Tibet, notwithstanding the unity it shows in political organization, civilization, and language, comprises several disparate racial types which cannot easily be reduced to a common origin 18. While ` it is certain that the majority of the present inhabitants are Mongolians ', there is also evidence to show that ' the Tibetans are not all wholly Mongolian '. This is specifically true of a widespread type described by Mr. Rockhill, ` which he terms the " Drupa type," and which he regards as " comparatively pure ".' As its characteristic features are indicated : stature under average ; brachycephalic head ; high cheek-bones ; thick and broad nose ; black wavy hair, little on face ; brown eyes 19. It is to a relatively large admixture of this particular type of Tibetans that Mr. Joyce attributes those unmistakable deviations from the Galcha type which the measurements taken prove for the people of Khotan and still more for those of Keriya, and which the admixture of Turki blood alone would be insufficient to explain 20.

It is true that the confines of the geographical area known to us as Western Tibet Natural

extend to the main Kun-lunrange which borders Khotan and the smaller oases connected barriers

between

with it on the south. But it would argue a grave misconception of the true geographical facts Khotan and

Tibet.

while the rest of the ' armies ' (e. g. of the 4,70o men with whom Sultan Said wrested ' the Six Cities ' of the Tarim Basin from Aba. Bakr), was made up apparently of Turkish and other adventurers; comp. Tdrikh-i-Rashidi, Introd. pp. 65 sqq. From Mirzâ Haidar's accounts we also see how little the peaceful population of the oases was concerned in the results of these raids and counter-raids, its share in the

events being confined at all times to feeding the victors and providing them with revenue.

'7 See/ Anthrop. Inst., xxxiii. p. 318.

18 On this point the remarks of M. Grenard, Mission D. de Rhins, ii. pp. 323 sqq., are worthy of special note.

19 See/ Anthrop. Inst., xxxiii. pp. 318 sq. Comp. ibid., p. 323.

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