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| 0218 |
Southern Tibet : vol.1 |
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OCR Text
Wilford therefore seems to be correct in everything, — except the Manasaro-
var. For so far as I have been able to find out, Monserrate has not left any account
of his experiences, and I think that Wilford has simply made a mistake and con-
founded Monserrate and Tieffenthaler, who, nearly 200 years later, calls the lake,
Mansaroar, which is almost the same spelling as Monserrate's supposed Mánsaruor.
JOHAN VAN TWIST leads us to comparatively more solid ground, though he
has nothing but hearsay information to give us.
The borax, he says, is found in the mountains of the beautiful province of
Purbet which stretches to the frontiers of Tartaria. There is also musk, nard,
quicksilver, copper and a kind of colour. The borax is found in a river called
Iankenckhaer, running through the mountains of Purbet, coming in a narrow water
which flows away through the middle of the country, and which they call Maseroor;
at the bottom of this water the borax grows, just as the coral does, and the Guje-
rats therefore give it the name of Iankenckhaer. ¹
Again it is the musk that opens the secrets of distant Tibet, for it is in a
description of the principal wares brought for sale to Gujerat that the unknown
country of Purbet happens to be mentioned. Purbet may be the northern mountains
in general, or Kailas Purbet. The musk and borax, and the fact that it stretches
to the very frontier of Tartary prove beyond doubt that it is Tibet. The river
Iankenckhaer must be the uppermost Satlej and Maseroor is Ma(na)seroo(va)r. The
confused hydrography as given in the text does not interfere with this explanation;
much more extraordinary waterways have been fabricated by explorers in our own
time, and verbal information, given by natives, may easily be misunderstood.
Van Twist's account is dated 1638, and I have not been able to find the
lake mentioned by name at any earlier date, by any European.
The next time I find the name of Manasarovar is in the introduction to
Walter Schouten's narrative. He travelled from 1658 to 1665, but the French edi-
tion, at my disposal, was not published until 1708, ² that is to say, at any rate,
before the discoveries of the Lama surveyors of Emperor Kang Hi, and 25 years
before d'Anville published his maps; and on the latter the lake is called Mapama
Talai and not Manasarovar.
Whether Schouten or his translator is responsible for the following passage or
not, we recognise in it a certain resemblance with van Twist, but also a new, very
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