Innermost Asia : vol.2 / 323 ページ（カラー画像）

0323	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

a palm leaf and a birch-bark manuscript. Insignificant as the written remnants are, they may yet
help to determine the origin of manuscripts from Kuchā which have been purchased at different
times by the Kāshgar Consulate General and otherwise for the Indian Government collection, and
which were formerly in Dr. Hoernle's charge.⁴

Farther to the north, and some 50 feet lower down, lies the cave-shrine Jig. 11 (Pl. 44). It com- Cave-
prises a cella, 17 feet wide and over 10 feet deep, with a passage running round the sides and shrines near
behind the central portion of rock ; this once held a stucco image in a niche. The front of the cella Jig. 11.
has fallen in and with it most of the plastered ceiling. What remained of the latter was decorated
with a painted lozenge diaper, now much injured ; like the traces of a seated Buddha painted in
the image niche, it suggested old and good work. The clearing of the cella and passage yielded no
finds. About 60 yards to the north and on a slightly lower level there is a large vaulted cave, about
31 feet wide and over 21 feet deep in its present broken condition. It looked like a hall, intended
perhaps for monastic gatherings. Its front had fallen in, and masses of fallen rock covered the floor
to a considerable depth. About 50 yards to the north there lie two caves now communicating with
each other through an opening, apparently recent, in the thin rock partition which divides them.
The roughly cut rock walls were blackened with smoke, and the layer of earth and straw refuse
covering the floor showed signs of having been repeatedly burrowed into. The larger of these
caves, about 18 feet wide and 12 feet deep, looked like a natural recess of which the walls had been
smoothed. Through a hole in the floor, which had partly given way, a similar recess, narrowing
tunnel-like westwards, had become accessible.

On the eastern side of the valley the caves were all small, and had suffered from the water and Caves on
mud brought down by occasional rain from slopes of decomposed rock. The detritus that covered eastern
these slopes probably hid some excavations altogether, and made the ascent to some of the higher spur.
caves distinctly difficult. The best preserved of these was a small but carefully cut cella, only
5 feet by 6, situated about 80 feet above the brook. I found its floor completely cleared. A trouble-
some climb from this point towards the northern end of the spur, seen on the extreme left of the
photograph, brought me past a completely collapsed cella to the narrow crest. On this, at an
elevation of some 200 feet, I found two caves, for the most part filled with deposits of mud ; their
plan proved that they had served as monastic quarters. One of them, Jig. 111, shown in Pl. 44, had
its entrance at an inside corner, to which a rock-cut passage gave access. It was cleared without
anything being found. On a small terrace below it, I noticed remains of charred wood, with the
clayey soil below burned red, apparently indicating that a small shrine, built of timber, had once
stood here and had been destroyed by fire. Pottery debris was to be found all the way up this
eastern spur, a sign of prolonged occupation.

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

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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

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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