Innermost Asia : vol.1 / Page 127 (Color Image)

0127	Innermost Asia : vol.1

travelled from Chieh-p'an-t'o via Wu-sha (Yangi-hissār, Yārkand) to Kāshgar in the autumn
of A. D. 642.³ At that season the more direct route up the Dershat valley and across the Kök-moinak
pass is certainly also the easier. In fact I was able to assure myself, as I moved up it on September
13–14, that the track leading up to it over the Kō-bulak-dasht and through the Dershat Jilga (Fig. 66)
is practicable throughout for camels and even elephants. This point is of some interest, because
we know from the Life that Hsüan-tsang was accompanied by elephants as far as the Tangitar
gorge beyond the Chichiklik,⁴ and the upper portion of the Shindī valley choked with masses of
big boulders must have been in the pilgrim's time as impossible for elephants as it would now be.

I have already had occasion fully to discuss in Serindia the physical features of the forbiddingly
barren and exposed plateau that forms the head of the Shindī valley, known as the Chichiklik-
maidān, and to prove that there was situated, at an elevation of close on 15,000 feet, an ancient
hospice the legend attaching to which is related by Hsüan-tsang in detail.⁵ The cutting wind and
driving snow which met us when we approached the Kök-moinak pass and crossed to the high
open plain beyond it was an appropriate illustration of the truth of Hsüan-tsang's description :
'In this region, both during summer and winter, there fall masses of snow ; the cold winds and
icy storms rage. The ground, impregnated with salt, produces no crops ; there are no trees and
nothing but wretched herbs. Even at the time of the great heat the wind and snow continue.
Scarcely have travellers entered this region when they find themselves surrounded by vapours
and clouds.' ⁶ But there was more satisfaction when, on examining more closely the spot where
on my previous passage I had located the ancient hospice of Hsüan-tsang's legend, I found distinct
archaeological evidence confirming this identification.

The Chichiklik-maidān (Map 2. c. 4), as our survey showed, measures about three miles
from north to south and over two miles across. Near the centre of it rises a low knoll bearing on
its top the remains of a much-decayed 'Gumbaz' built with rough stones and respected as a sacred
spot by Muhammadan wayfarers (Fig. 67). Around it there can be traced quite clearly foundations
of walls built with the same rough material but far more solidly, forming an enclosure 102 feet
square and correctly orientated (see the plan, Pl. 1). All over the enclosed area are scattered
low grave mounds, most of them badly decayed, the ground being still used, according to the
information I received on the spot, as a burial-ground for unfortunate wayfarers. For this desolate
high plateau, exposed to the winds and snows, continues to claim its victims, as testified by Benedict
Goës where his notes tell us : 'And then in two days more [from Sarcil, i. e. Sarīkol] they reached
the foot of the mountain called Ciecialith [i. e. Chichiklik]. It was covered deep with snow, and
during the ascent many were frozen to death, and our brother himself barely escaped, for they
were altogether six days in the snow here.' ⁷ In Chinese Turkestān the sites of supposed 'Ziārats'
of saints are invariably chosen for graveyards ; hence the graves found within the ruined enclosure
furnish direct proof that the spot has long been held sacred.

This fact, viewed in the light of what I have been able to show elsewhere about the survival
of Buddhist local worship in Muhammadan Central Asia,⁸ as well as the central position occupied

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Citation Information

OCR Text

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books