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

another stream of the same name. Here he is right and he clearly points out that
these rivers are tributaries of the Langchen-Kamba.

Then he came to a »town» called Reta-puri (Tirtapuri), where he visited the
divine Grotto and the hot springs. He returned north of the two lakes and made
the pilgrims' way round Kailas. The names he gives of the four temples do not
agree with the ordinary ones. But for the pass, Dolma-la, he has the right name,
and so is the case with Darchen Tazam.

His further way goes over »Tokchen Tazam to Kong-gyu-i Tso» (Gunchu-tso).
He did not take the road over Maryum-la but went in a more southern direction as
will be seen later on.

qu'elles font honneur à sa résistance physique, les tortures de M. L. ne sont pas stériles. Elles don-
nent un grand enseignement: ces peuples qu'on dit immobiles sont sujets aux changements, à des
sautes de caractère subites et inexplicables. Mais pour donner géographiquement raison à M. Landor . . ,
il faudrait admettre que les pays, les montagnes et les fleuves sont sujets aux mêmes caprices que les
peuples. Je n'ai pas cru pouvoir aller jusque-là.»

No less than 42 pages in his book are filled with certificates which probably are meant to
prove that there is no humbug in the story. Mr. J. Larkin specially has been busy. He tells us
(p. 223) that the Tibetans who took part in the tortures did not try to hide it. And there can be
no doubt that the above account is true and unexaggerated, for the whole of Byans and Chaudans
are singing with it.» Ten years later, when I passed Tuksum (Toxem) and other places on the road
to the west I could not find one Tibetan who remembered that any foreign traveller had been tortured
in their country. Which by no means argues against the veracity of the victim! It only gives us an
opportunity for another interesting discovery: the Tibetans are very short of memory. — Further the
Pioneer Mail of October 14, 1898, has the following with reference to the certificates in the Forbidden
Land: »We have the best authority for stating, as we did the other day, that Mr. Landor was told that
his report was confidential, that no copy was given him, and that he was not authorised to publish any
Government report. The certified copies of depositions made in Mr. Larkin's Court should not be
mistaken for M. Larkin's report.»

All the names on the western part of the map accompanying »In the Forbidden Land» were
known before, except »Devil's camp» and »Terror camp». A circumstance that makes the book com-
fortable to read and the itinerary easy to study is the complete absence of geographical names east of
Maryum-la. Except Toxem and Namj Laccé there is not one name. Nain Sing has nine.

The weather report he gives from the summer of 1897 is extremely interesting. »Downpours,
torrents and bucketfuls» of rain, hail and snow almost every day. Only approaching Tuksum, where
other hardships were in store, did the weather improve. Such abundant precipitation is quite exceptional
in the part of Tibet where our lakes are situated. But it really happens from time to time, periodi-
cally, and in such years the channel between Manasarovar and Rakas-tal is filled with streaming water,
although the surface of Manasarovar does not need to rise 300 feet, which he says was the lowest
point in the neck of land between the two lakes. And it may even happen that a river goes out of
the Rakas-tal, which, judging from his map, seems to have been the case in 1897! As a curiosity it
should be noticed that in his book of two volumes the name of Satlej is not even mentioned, though
the author, 13 years afterwards, tries to make the members of L'Asie Française believe that he has
discovered two sources of this river.

But »such trifles» as some 90 miles more or less or the probable appearance of Mount Everest
in Western Tibet, do not seem to matter very much to »the innocent public» for whom the book is
meant. For they really innocent public would probably not have minded if he had said Chimborazo
instead of Mount Everest. But in »so-called scientific societies» this sort of geography is not accepted.
We listen with delight to the old missionaries who expect that their simple tales shall be believed
— without certificates. And with intense interest we try to make the best of the accounts of the
fakirs and other natives, for they give their misunderstandings nolens volens and bona fide, and they
are honest.