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

debris on the slope below this cave. It shows Kuchean writing divided into three sections, both
on the obverse and reverse (see App. G). String holes prove that it must have been intended
to form part of a packet of similar records. Taj. ii. ii, another small cave-shrine, had lost almost
the whole of its vaulting and front ; it contained no passage at the back, only an arched niche.
Taj. ii. v proved to be a shallow rock recess, artificially enlarged, apparently to form a modest
dwelling. The completely ruined shrine, T. ii. iii, of which the walls could not be exactly determined,
had apparently enclosed a small Stūpa, of which the square base, though broken, still rose to
about 2 feet. In this, as well as in the badly decayed cella ii. iv, measuring 13 feet by 9½, tiny
flakes of leaf gold and minute fragments of painted stucco were all that remained of the internal
decorations.

Site of
Toghrak-
akin. In view of the scanty nature of our finds, the main interest of the Tajik site lies in the evidence
it supplies of the physical conditions that probably prevailed in this region during the period when
Buddhist cult was maintained here, probably down to T'ang times. This evidence, however,
may more conveniently be considered in connexion with the results of my examination of the
neighbouring and closely similar site of Toghrak-akin. Its ruins were found to be situated in a
narrow winding gorge, which, as the sketch-plan in Pl. 42 shows, cuts far back into the same barren
hill range. The mouth of this gorge, appropriately called Toghrak-akin from a number of large
wild poplars which flourish on subterranean drainage at its bottom, is a little under two miles from
Tajik. Before reaching it we passed a rather brackish well in a tract where reeds and scrub were
growing in abundance ; and near the entrance of the gorge we came upon a small canal carrying
a tiny flow of fresh water. It marked a recent attempt to tap the subterranean drainage of the gorge
by means of a Kārēz, and to cultivate the potentially fertile soil on the alluvial fan farther down.
The inadequacy of the water-supply had frustrated this attempt of an enterprising Kuchā landowner,
who knew the Kārēz cultivation of Turfān, but not the wholly different geological conditions
which there permit of it. Nevertheless this little canal proved that, even now, wells sunk in the
dry bed at the bottom of the Toghrak-akin gorge would suffice to meet the needs of such a monastic
community as it must have held in Buddhist times, judging from the numerous ruins traced on both
sides of it.

Effects of
erosion by
rain. Owing partly to lack of time and partly to the state of advanced decay to which climatic
conditions, destruction by man, and the extremely friable nature of the rocky slopes had reduced
all remains, I was unable to explore thoroughly all the shrines and caves. But the work carried
out with the help of a comparatively large number of labourers sufficed to secure clear evidence
of the character and date of the site. Ascending the gorge, which for a distance of about 400 yards
winds in a generally northward direction, I noted on all sides striking indications of the scouring
and eroding effect which rain, rare as it may be, has had on the crumbling slopes of rock, cut up
by numerous steep narrow ravines. Owing to the decomposition of the intervening layers of soft
clay, the thin, almost vertically dipping strata of sandstone have become exposed, both on slopes
and ridges, and this has accelerated the complete decay of any structures once built upon them.

Advanced
decay of
remains. A quantity of debris of ancient timber, reduced to a shapeless condition, was found washed
down into the miniature cañons striating the slopes. But of the structures to which those materials
had originally belonged only the scantiest traces could be found on the crests above. Similarly,
the small caves, whether used as shrines or monks' quarters, had in most cases suffered badly through
the partial collapse of the crumbling rock walls, or from the mud which rain had carried into them.
The extreme softness of the clay surface caused it to give way under our feet whenever an ascent
had to be made to the ruins. It is indeed difficult to believe that when this sacred site was in use,
and the paths to its sanctuaries and habitations much trodden, the surface could have been quite