Innermost Asia : vol.2 / Page 355 (Color Image)

0355	Innermost Asia : vol.2

valley at its head is certainly far shorter and offers no serious difficulty for laden ponies.² During
the winter months, when heavy snow lies on the passes crossed by the cart-road to the south, the
Yeshil-köl route, which then runs partly over the ice of the lake, is in fact the only one used.

It therefore seems safe to assume that this, the most direct route, was that mainly followed by Historical
the Chinese travellers and troops of whose moves across the Pāmirs towards Shughnān we have use of
definite historical record. Here it must suffice to refer to the account of Kao Hsien-chih's famous Yeshil-köl
expedition of A. D. 747 across the Pāmirs and Hindukush, which I have fully discussed elsewhere,³ route.
in the course of which that great commander personally led a considerable force from Kāshgar to
Sarīkol and Shughnān ; also to the journeys of the Buddhist monk Wu-k'ung, who in A. D. 751–2
passed from Kāshgar to Shughnān, and on his way back from India more than thirty years later
again passed from Shughnān to Kāshgar.⁴ In the case of the Chinese pursuit in 1759 of the
fugitive Khōjas from Kāshgar, there is direct evidence of the use of this route in the Chinese
inscription of Sūme-tāsh to be referred to below.⁵ Nor would Sūme-tāsh have been a scene of
bloodshed in 1892 had its position at the eastern end of the Yeshil-köl not marked it out to the
Chinese and then to the Afghāns as a suitable place for watching the route to Shughnān leading
along the northern shore of the lake.⁶

A further remark relates to the Būruman ridge, to which the route from the uppermost Ghund View from
valley ascends immediately above the western extremity of the lake. With the experience recently Būruman
gained at the large newly formed Sārēz lake, it was difficult to overlook those topographical features ridge.
which seem to suggest that the Yeshil-köl derived its existence, at least in its present shape, from
a similar cataclysm at some earlier period. To the eyes of the non-geologist the formation of the
Būruman ridge closing the western end of the lake (Fig. 381) seemed to bear a close resemblance
to the newly formed barrage which has created the Sārēz lake. Of features indicating that the
damming up of the lake at the Būruman barrier was due to an accumulation of moraines ⁷ I failed
to see any trace. On the other hand a great gap on the deeply furrowed slopes of the range opposite
showed the spot from which the landslide had shaken down the rock debris that now block what
was before a deep-cut river-bed. The Būruman ridge, where the bridle-path crosses it, rises about
400 feet above the level of the lake,⁸ and Fig. 383 shows the fine view which it offers over the
winding sheet of turquoise-blue water. The Būruman ridge is seen in Fig. 380, as it presents itself
from the mouth of the Little Marjanai valley.

About a mile before passing the picturesque little peninsula of Kamparchuk (Fig. 378) the Passage
route crosses a troublesome rock face, where the loads of the ponies had to be lightened. Farther along lake
on, near the grassy delta of the stream coming from the Great Marjanai valley, I was shown a circular shore.
stone enclosure, about 55 yards in diameter, known as Khitai-kurghān, and two smaller ruined
enclosures of the same type within 200 yards' distance. They probably mark a station maintained
during some period when the route to Shughnān was in use by Chinese. Of uncertain date are
also three small destroyed mounds half a mile ahead. Near them a black stone block bears the
Islamic creed and an invocation of 'Alī inscribed in sgraffito.

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

Citation Information

OCR Text

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