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| 0016 |
Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1 |
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OCR Text
Turkestan; thence skirting the Taklamakan desert,
through Yarkand and Khotan to Polu, a village on
the slopes of the Kuen Lun Mountains; thence up
to the Tibetan plateau, whose north-west corner we
explored, passing through the unknown region called
Aksai Chin; thence out through Ladak and Kashmir
to Rawal Pindi on the railway; thence to Bombay.
The disasters which overtook us on the plateau
were those more or less familiar in the recitals of
other adventurers into this most difficult land. We
travelled for eight weeks, never at altitudes less than
15,500 feet, often rising to 18,500 feet. The country
is quite barren and uninhabited, and the cold is ex-
treme. Hence the ponies rapidly die, thus imperil-
ling the lives of men, who, at such elevations, must
have transport. The hardships were in every re-
spect more severe than those experienced by me in
a considerable journey in Africa—from Somaliland
to Khartoum.
The Turkestan region, at a much lower level than
Tibet (about 3500 feet), offered little difficulty. Its
historical interest is great, and has direct relation with
the development of European civilisation. Geo-
graphically and topographically the Central Asian
region differs so much from familiar lands that it
must be closely studied in order to be understood.
In many parts of Asia (but not all), the civilisa-
tions, both past and present, have had as their
physical basis a highly developed irrigation system.
Consideration of the facts presented to the traveller
and to the student has led me to conclude that irri-
gation-civilisations are of a special type. They are
easily distinguishable, not only from commercial or
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