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

Tibet was forgotten among the Europeans, and the country had to be rediscovered
300 years after Odoric. In the 16th and 17th centuries, innumerable journeys were
made to India. But it seems as if these travellers were never able to see anything
with their own eyes or make any new observations. They repeat each other's words
interminably, they quote the classic authors and look upon Ptolemy as the principal
authority. All knowledge of these parts has, until the middle of the 17th century,
taken a crystallised form after antique patterns, and the classic authors have often
given to the world much better descriptions than have the recorders of journeys
of this period. Thus were the Indus, the Satlej and the Ganges better known
during the Greek and Roman antiquity, than by the geographers of the 16th
and 17th centuries. The Himalayas pass under both ancient and modern names
such as Imaus, Taurus, Caucasus, Paropamisus, Nagrakot and the Ussonte-mountains,
and are considered to separate India from Tartary or Scythia to the North. Kash-
mir and Srinagar are names that occur quite often, and sometimes even the king-
dom of Tibet is mentioned, but vaguely and dimly, and is commonly looked upon,
even by the renowned Thevenot, as a part of Tartary. Tavernier has a few things
to say about Boutan, though mostly out of interest for trade. In his description he,
almost without knowing of it, touches on Tibet. Van Twist in 1638 is the first one
to mention the name of Masoroor i. e. Manasarovar, so renowned among the Hin-
doos and, later on, even in Europe.

None of these travellers had penetrated beyond the high mountains to the
North. They were East India travellers who only were able to gather second and
third hand informations. Widely more important and eminent were the two Catholic
Missionaries Benedict Goës and Antonio de Andrade. Goës was one of the Jesuits
who came to Lahore in 1594 on the invitation of the Emperor Akbar. At Goa, he
was commissioned by his fraternity to discover Cathay, believed to be another country
than China. His journey carried him across almost the whole interior of Asia, over
Kabul, Pamir, Khotan, Turfan, and Su-chou. It is a most remarkable journey, but
only touching on the borders of our territory, which he passed round. Andrade is
the first European to have crossed the Himalayas from India, which he did in 1624,
on his renowned and important journey to Tsaparang on the upper Satlej. After
having travelled to this city a second time, he was followed by a number of Mis-
sionaries, but of their journeys we have got no information. The geographical
knowledge, left us by Andrade, is a minimum, but still of the greatest interest. He
speaks of a small lake on the Mana pass, believed by geographers still living to
be Manasarovar. It was the learned Kircher who, without having any idea of the