Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 / Page 689 (Color Image)

0689	Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1

XXXIX STRATEGIC VALUE OF MIRAN 451

when the former became impracticable through desiccation

about the fourth century of our era.

But a still more essential reason for the Tibetans to

garrison Miran probably lay in the fact that at this little

oasis debouch the two most direct routes leading from

Central Tibet and Lhasa across the high plateaus and

ranges of the Kun-lun to the easternmost part of the

Tarim Basin. Thus Miran must have been for them a

point d'aj5j5ui of strategic value. Once the Tibetan power

had disappeared from the north of those great inhos-

pitable mountain wastes, Miran must have rapidly sunk into

insignificance ; since for whatever traffic passed along the

ancient route from Khotan and the other southern oases

to Tun-huang and China during Uigur, early Muhammadan,

and Mongol times, Charklik offered a far better base.

Thus it is easy to understand why there is no mention

of Miran in Marco Polo, whose ` town of Lop ' undoubtedly

represents Charklik. No doubt, when the Venetian's

caravan passed the old fort on its way into the ` Desert

of Lop,' the crumbling walls which looked down upon it

were quite as silent and deserted as now. Once, late in

the evening when the icy gale was howling its wildest, a

large caravan numbering sixty or seventy camels, all laden

with brick tea from Tun-huang, made its way past our

desolate camp by the fort wall. The enterprising Kashgar

traders who owned them were eager to reach water and fuel,

and would not stop for more than a hasty greeting even

though we were the first people they had met for twenty-

three days past. So the whole tinkling train soon vanished

again in darkness like some phantom from an age long

gone by.

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