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

ders of the fortress applied to one of the Rai of Hindustan who came with 3,000
Hindu infantry to help them against the invaders.
Mirza Haidar halted some days in a pasture-ground near Barmang, from
where, having chosen out 900 men from the army, he set forth with them for Ursang.
»From Máryul of Tibet to that place is two month's journey. After one month's
journey, one comes to a spot where a lake is situated; it is 40 farsakhs in circum-
ference, and on its shores there is a castle, which is called Luk-u-Labuk. We
halted there for the night» On account of the difficulty of breathing almost all the
horses died. Leaving this place, only a fifth part of the army was mounted, all the
rest proceeded on foot. Two days further the province of Ham (or Hari) was
plundered. »The people of that place assert that it is 24 days' journey into Ban-
gala.» Only 90 men out of the 900 were now mounted. »With these ninety, I
advanced and plundered a place called Askábrak. About 100,000 sheep, 20,000
kutás (i. e. yaks) and a proportionate number of prisoners and horses, fell into our
hands. There remained eight days' journey from Askábrak to Ursang. However,
the horses of our party beeing entirely broken down, we were obliged to turn back.»
Six days later they started for the west. Twenty days' journey from Máryul they
came to a place called Tamlik. From there they had only two marches to Guga,
from which place Mirza Haidar returned.
In a note¹ the editors point out the fact that the names from Ladak and Bal-
tistan are transliterated with remarkable accuracy and that it is only in the imper-
fectly known regions of Tibet proper that difficulties arise. They found an ex-
planation to this in the fact that too little was known of the geography of Southern
Tibet. The editors had in vain tried to obtain some information from Desideri, and still
some 180 years later, he seemed to have travelled, »over almost exactly the same
route as Mirza Haidar».
But even now, after Ryder's and Rawling's and my own expeditions in these parts
of Tibet, it is not easier than in 1895 to identify the names. Tamlik seems to be
somewhere at the upper Satlej, as it was only two days from Guga, which may be
Guge. Ham or Hari is probably Ngari, in Chinese Ari, so much the more as it is
said to be 24 days from Bangála, in its widest sense equivalent with the Indian
plains. Mirza Haidar travelled with an army, and an invasion of Tibet from the
west can hardly be undertaken on any other route than the ordinary trade-route
from Ladak, along the Indus to the Manasarovar, Maryum-la, and the Tsangpo.
The lake halfway between Leh and Lhasa points also to the same effect. Its circum-
ference of 40 farsakh is given at 160 miles by the editors. The real circumference
of the Manasarovar is 48 miles, but including the Rakas-tal, we get some 90 miles.
As a rule the oriental always exaggerates the sizes of lakes. Kárdun may be Gar-
gunsa, or Gartok. On the shores of the Manasarovar I have not found any name