Innermost Asia : vol.2 / 85 ページ（カラー画像）

0085	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

The unfavourable conditions of the soil disclosed by this trial excavation made it inadvisable Continuity
to proceed with the work at other tombs of this site. Nor did we obtain any better result from the of local
clearing of a small ruined structure, manifestly a Buddhist shrine, situated about 200 yards farther worship.
east near the edge of the terrace. It was said to have been dug up by Ilyās and to have yielded
some small stucco images. Its walls of sun-dried bricks were found to be broken within a few feet
from the ground, and all that we learnt from the excavation carried out by Naik Shamsuddīn
during my visit to Pichan was that the structure had once consisted of a small cella and circum-
ambulatory passage measuring about 34 feet by 27 outside. The similarity of the masonry with
that found in parts of the walls enclosing the mosque of the present Muhammadan Mazār suggests
that the latter was actually built into the ruins of a Buddhist sanctuary. We have here another
illustration of that continuity of local worship so often observed elsewhere.

Local reports that old walls were to be found on the steep and utterly bare sandstone ridge Rough
that rises above the Mazār induced me to send Afrāz-gul to the spot. I myself was still much quarters on
hampered by the condition of my injured leg, which did not allow me to walk more than a few Mazār.
hundred yards at a time even on level ground. Afrāz-gul, after a stiff climb, reached the top of
the ridge at an elevation of about 1,500 feet above the Mazār, and found there low remains of
roughly built stone walls enclosing three small detached rooms aligned in a row. Mixed with the
refuse, mainly of straw and horse-dung, found within them, there were fragments of pottery and
coarse fabrics, as shown by the specimens described in the note below.⁴ The former and the
fragment of a turned wooden leg, Yut. 04, appear to be old, as do the fragments of Chinese
documents on paper which were discovered in the easternmost room. [In one of them Dr. L.
Giles has noted the date, A.D. 743.] What purpose these rough quarters served, at a spot far
removed from traffic or water, is puzzling. Possibly they may have sheltered a look-out post.

About a mile and a half lower down, on the right bank of the Khandō stream, there rise the badly Buddhist
injured ruins of what must have once been a large Buddhist shrine, with monastic quarters attached. shrine
The most imposing features of the otherwise much-decayed ruins are the outer north wall of the below
whole structure (see the sketch-plan, Pl. 26), which in parts still rises to over 25 feet, and the tower- Yutōgh.
like image base, 13 feet square in the outer court. This contains niches for four large images, now
completely destroyed, and stands to a height of about 18 feet. The lower portion of the base and
all the walls is cut out of the solid clay of the terrace, and the upper portion is constructed of stamped
clay. The interior of the several rooms built round a central court was found completely bare,
the position of the ruin on a comparatively steep slope having facilitated erosion. But round holes
in the flooring of two rooms remain to mark the places where large jars probably once stood for
the storage of grain, &c.

Half a mile farther down the gorge, also on the right bank, lies a group of small caves, badly Cave-
injured by the decay of the loose conglomerate into which they are cut, and also by vandal hands. shrines
About 30 feet above a narrow strip of cultivation two vaulted rooms open from a small terrace, below
one measuring 10½ feet by 2¾ and the other 8 feet by 7. Their plastered walls were so much begrimed Yutōgh.

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

ディジタル・シルクロード内の関連サイト

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

ディジタル・シルクロード内の関連サイト

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ