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| 0149 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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measuring about 53 by 23 feet and completely filled with debris ; this, judging from the refuse
found at its NE. corner, may well have served as a monastic dwelling-place.
The complete clearing of the ruins, coupled with the necessary arrangements for labour and Site once
adequate transport of water, would have involved a greater sacrifice of time than I was able reached by
then to make without endangering my main programme. But even the rapid survey effected Kāshgar
sufficed to throw light on some essential points of interest. It showed clearly that the remains river.
of the site belong approximately to the same period as the ruined Buddhist sanctuaries on the hills
of Tumshuk, some eleven miles away to the south-east,⁸ and that their destruction by fire dates,
like that of the latter, probably from the very commencement of the Muhammadan period. It
is obvious that as long as the Lāl-tāgh site was occupied there must have been water in its immediate
vicinity, and this can have been brought there only by a branch of the Kāshgar river, which still
extends its deltaic channels and marshes far beyond Tumshuk. A variety of local observations
fully support this conclusion. The ancient dry river-bed passed by us on the way to the Lāl-tāgh
site and coming from the south-west has already been noticed. Though I could not actually locate
it near the ruins, yet the belt of dead Toghraks through which we passed on our way from the
ruins to the gap between the Achal-tāgh and Bēl-tāgh (see below) sufficiently proves the con-
tinuation southward of this former bed. Similarly the ancient canal, to be noticed presently,
that we crossed in the same part of our route, can have received its water only from the south,
i. e. from the area west of Tumshuk, which is still reached by flood-beds and irrigation canals
from the Kāshgar river.⁹
Now, on examining the topographical facts recorded by our surveys of 1908 and 1913, we Ancient
see at once the special antiquarian interest attaching to the Lāl-tāgh site in its bearing on the route pass-
question of an earlier route towards Kāshgar. My journey from Kelpin to Tumshuk in May, ing Lāl-
1908, had enabled me to trace an extensive area of ancient cultivation round the ruined fort of tāgh.
Chong-tim (Map No. 7. B. 4), situated some sixteen miles to the north of Tumshuk and now
completely abandoned to drift-sand desert. When discussing the observations there made, I was
able to show that this area had been occupied down to T'ang times, and that there was evidence
that an ancient route led to it straight from the vicinity of Chilan (Map 7. c. 3), where the present
Ak-su–Kāshgar high road leaves the foot of the hills.¹⁰ A look at the map proves that the Lāl-
tāgh site lies in the direct continuation of this route, and that the gap between the hills of Lāl-tāgh
and Chōl-tāgh—as the rocky hill chain north of the Tumshuk ruin is called—forms the natural
and most convenient passage for such a road. Thus the position chosen for the Buddhist sanctuary
at the barren foot of the Lāl-tāgh is also fully accounted for. It flanked a much-frequented route
at a conspicuous point, in the same manner as the popular Muhammadan shrine named Ōkur-
mazār marks the point where the present high road between Tumshuk and Marāl-bāshi passes
below the picturesque southern spur of the hill chain known as Achal-tāgh or Ōkur-mazār-tāgh
(Map 8. B. 1).¹¹
Having thus traced the assumed ancient road from Ak-su as far as the Lāl-tāgh site, there Line of
still remains for us to consider the line of its probable continuation to the south-west. Such a line ancient
had necessarily to cross the chain of hills represented by the Bēl-tāgh and its southern extension, SW. of Lāl-
the Achal-tāgh or Ōkur-mazār-tāgh ; and the map shows that only two passages were available tāgh.
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684
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