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

journeys in the fourth volume of this book. In the first volume, I have particularly
followed the revisions and translations made by Klaproth, Abel Rémusat, Bushell,
Bretschneider, Rockhill, de Rhins, Herrmann and others. Klaproth could already
by the aid of Chinese sources give a very good description of the hydrographical
conditions of Southern Tibet. In many instances his conclusions were remarkably
accurate, and they prove how well informed were the authors of whose writings he
had made use. Generally, the picture of, for instance, the sources of the great In-
dian rivers, left by the Chinese, is much more reliable and true than the conception
Europeans still alive have formed of the same regions. I try to analyse the Chinese
geographers' descriptions of different extents of land in South-western Tibet and to
compare their results with my own. In this point I have found excellent guidance in
d'Anville's map of Tibet, founded on Chinese sources, and in Dutreuil de Rhins' con-
scientious explanations of the Ta-ch'ing map. The Chinese are generally much less
accurate in their orographic than in their hydrographic drawings. Their maps of
the sources of the Satlej and the Brahmaputra, and of the northern tributaries to
the Tsangpo, were the best materials existing before my journey.
After this, I pass on to speak of the knowledge Europe had of Tibet during
the middle ages. First among the travellers from this period stands Pian de Car-
pine, who began his journey in 1245, and only incidentally tells some fantastic sto-
ries from Tibet. Rubruck started seven years later for the Far East, and he increased
to a certain extent the materials of information left by Pian de Carpine. Marco
Polo is the first European who has given any reliable descriptions of the inaccessible
land. All that he has to tell, especially about the customs and usages of the peoples,
carries the stamp of the greatest veracity. He is the foremost of all the travellers
of the middle ages and the pioneer for Asiatic exploration of all times. Odoric is,
on the other hand, the first European to have travelled straight through Tibet in
its proper sense, and he has even visited Lhasa, in the year of 1330. But he has
scarcely anything to tell about the country. His contemporary Mandeville was a
swindler who had stolen his information from Odoric and others. To this epoch
also belongs Benjamin of Tudela, who completed his journeys in 1173. The follow-
ing is all that he has to say about Tibet: »The country of Tuboth, which is three
months journey distant from Arabia«, and: »In four dayes journey from hence (Samar-
cheneth) you come to Tubot a Metropolitan Citie, in the Woods whereof sweet
smelling Mosse is found.«¹ After the times of the great travellers, the existence of