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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

books, paintings, small idols and the like. For this statement, too, there is confirmation in the very
large quantity of books, cult objects, &c., that Colonel Kozlov's brief report mentions as having
been removed by him, and likewise in the abundance of the relics left behind, evidently as waste,
among the debris that was thrown down in the course of this ' exploration '. According to Shapir the
structure, found practically intact, had no visible entrance, but a hole existed on the top.
Account [Since the above was written, the kindness of that distinguished Oriental scholar, Professor
of Col.
Kozlov's Serge d'Oldenburg, Perpetual Secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has made accessible
exploration. to me two important Russian publications—his own exhaustive monograph on Materials for
Buddhist Iconography from Khara-khoto (St. Petersburg, 1914), and Colonel Kozlov's narrative
of his expedition of 1907–9, Mongolia, Amdo and the dead town Khara-khoto (Moscow-Petro-
grad, 1923). The account given from the discoverer's record in the introduction to the former
publication and reproduced in chapter XXV of his own book as to the place and manner in which
the great discovery of the expedition was made is too brief to clear up all points of archaeological
interest connected with the ruin or to answer all the questions raised by its surprisingly rich and
varied deposits. But fortunately the three photographs reproduced in both publications suffice,
even in the absence of a plan or other exact records, to acquaint us with the appearance of the
structure before it was destroyed, and with the general character of so much of the sculptural
deposits as remained in situ after the rough ' clearing ' of the structure was done. That the ruin
was that of a 'sepulchral Stūpa' is made certain by the discovery in it of a skeleton (see Col. Kozlov's
Mongolia, Amdo, &c., p. 555) ; but whether the recorded observations furnish sufficient evidence
for the assumption that the clay sculptures, paintings and other sacred objects were deposited at
the same time I am unable to judge. If the interior of the 'Suburgan'—to use the Mongol term
applied by the Russian explorers to the ruin—was from the first, as seems probable, intended to
hold this great deposit, it has supplied us with a very instructive instance of a practice not previously,
as far as I know, attested by definite archaeological evidence.⁵ The packing of other Stūpas at
this site and also at So-yang-ch'êng with miniature votive models of Stūpas offers, however,
an analogy.⁶
Colonel Kozlov's photograph of the ' Suburgan ', before it was opened and levelled to
the ground, does not admit of exact measurement of structural features. But it shows that there
was a three-storied base, with boldly projecting cornices ; an apparently circular drum, and above
this a cylindrical dome. In general appearance the structure seems to have differed from the
other Stūpas of the site, while in some respects its picture curiously recalls the ruined Stūpa seen
by me at Thol in Hunza ⁷ and its Tibetan counterparts.]
Materials It is only from a full analysis of the antiquarian riches transmitted to the Asiatic Museum of
transmitted
to Petro- the Russian Academy that a correct estimate can be expected of the date, extent, and true value of
grad. this great deposit. [The great artistic and iconographic interest of the very numerous fine paintings
comprised among these finds has been discussed with full competence by Professor d'Oldenburg
in a separate monograph ; see above.] Of the importance of the materials recovered for the study
of the previously almost unknown Hsi-hsia language, some idea may already be gained from certain
publications of M. Ivanov in the Russian Academy's Proceedings, and from the summary informa-
tion contained in a notice by the same Oriental scholar, translated in the Journal Asiatique