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| 0134 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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frowning rock scarps and bold spurs, much-eroded side valleys stretched away on either side.
The hill slopes, mainly composed of sandstone with layers streaked red and grey, showed the
same excessive erosion that I had observed on my passage in 1900 down the Gez-darra and across
the Tokuz-dawān.¹² Once again the impression made on me was as if the erosive forces that are
ever at work in this arid region had laid bare the very skeleton of the outer hill ranges. As I passed
the broad alluvial fan where a lively stream from the Yapchan-jilga waters the rich cultivation
of Kurghān, my attention was attracted by the deep red loam of the soil, evidently the product
of decomposed sandstone, and by the huge blocks of conglomerate scattered over it like erratic
boulders. Then I noticed masses of the same conglomerate high up, overlying the red sandstone
ridges like a mantle. This stratum, many hundreds of feet thick, was uniformly visible on both
sides of the valley.
Debouchure
of Kara-
tāsh river. Sāmān with its solitary dwelling among sandy fields was the last cultivated area in the valley.
Former experience at the debouchures of other rivers in the Tārīm basin had prepared me for
the utter desolation over which we proceeded for twenty miles on September 20th before reaching
the edge of the cultivated plain. Fantastically eroded sandstone ridges, absolutely bare, continued
to flank the wide barren valley for about four miles. There, at the last small defile known as
Tüshküch, the river was about forty yards wide and carried a volume of water estimated by me
at about 1,400 cubic feet per second. During the summer floods the water was said to be about
six feet deeper, which would imply a volume at least three or four times greater. Beyond this point
the hills die away in flat-topped plateaux of conglomerate. These, where their foot is washed by
the river, break off in almost perpendicular cliffs. Finally, the valley assumes the character of
a wide stony 'Dasht', and across this the route took us for over six miles before the river, which
winds away to the NE., came in sight again opposite the low ridge of Aimodun.
Shrine of
Pakhlān-
khōjam. The deserted watch-station of Chong-karaul marks the point where two main canals of Yangi-
hissār, known as Töwis and Shāh-niāz, have their heads. About two miles farther on and to the
north of that ridge, the river passes close to the foot of the conglomerate plateau that skirts it on
the left side all the way from Chong-tokai. On a knoll near the very end of the plateau stands
the well-known shrine of Pakhlān-khōjam, a famous Muhammadan saint. His tomb is a much-
frequented pilgrimage place for the people of the Yangi-hissār district, as he is supposed specially
to protect the water-supply of the Kara-tāsh river, on which the irrigation of their lands depends.
His Ziārat thus plays here a part exactly corresponding to that of the Kohmāri shrine above the
Kara-kāsh river, which has long since been shown to inherit the site and function of the 'Goṡṙiṅga
Hill' of Buddhist Khotan.¹³ It was therefore no surprise to me to find that the Lawar-üstang,
the largest of the canals irrigating the lands of Yangi-hissār and that which brings water to the
town itself, takes off from the Kara-tāsh river¹⁴ just opposite Pakhlān-khōjam's tomb. The latter
is marked by two 'Gumbaz' and a large walled enclosure. Of older remains near it I could learn
nothing. But there can be no doubt that the worship of the site, a true su-bāshī, goes back to early
times.
Cultivation
of Yangi-
hissār. Fording for the last time the river, which here turns off to the north, I soon reached the first
fields of Āltunluk, a small flourishing village on the edge of the open plain, and felt myself once
more on familiar ground. Kichik Bēg, who had been sent from the Yangi-hissār Ya-mēn to
receive me, was an old acquaintance from Khotan. He had much to tell me of the detrimental
effect on the economic development of the district resulting from the disturbances and political
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