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

Gosul-gompa is situated on the east side of the neck, between the two lakes
and near its narrowest point. The right corner of the second stone step below the
wooden threshold at the principal entrance of this *gompa* was, on August 8th,
37.40 m. above the surface of the lake. The slope of the hills, of gravel and shingle,
is rather steep and no terraces are visible. It is impossible to draw any conclusions
from what the Lamas tell you about the water-stand. The belt of dead algæ, to
which the water-line was said to have reached in 1906, was 2.25 m. from the shore
of 1907, which would mean a fall of 4 or 5 centimeters. About 1903 or 1904 no
lagoons at all existed along the shore. A watermark 0.57 m. above the lake was
said to be only a few years old. In 1895 the water should have reached the foot
of a block, which, however, was 3.15 m. above the lake and 26 m. from the shore!
In 1898 water was said to have passed through the channel of the Ganga for the
last time. In about 1875 so much water went out through the channel that it was
dangerous to cross it on horseback and one had to use the bridge at Chiu-gompa.
At the foot of the hill of Gosul there are two grottoes which may have been caved
out by the lake. One of them was, at its lowest, 5.75 m. above the lake, the other
6.88 m.; the first was 36.7 m. from the lake, which also gives the open space between
the foot of the hills and the water-line.

A little bit south of Gosul-gompa a road follows up a ravine, and, climbing
the rounded, fairly steep hills, one reaches the highest point of the neck between
the Manasarovar and Rakas-tal, 285 m. above the surface of the sacred lake. From
this point the aspect of the two lakes is extremely instructive and indescribably pic-
turesque. A road on the neck, going north and south, seems chiefly to have been
in use at a time when the lake was so high as not to allow a passage at the eastern
foot of the hills along the Manasarovar.

The Tibetan guide pointed out the following names: Nakpo-nargo, snowy
mountains belonging to the Himalaya and visible at a considerable distance W.S.W.;
Tangla, mountain near the lake, S. 60° W.; Kurla (Kur-la, Gurla, Gur-la) or Kurla-
layo, S. 17° W., obviously the pass into Purang; Langa-donggang, open plain at the
shore of Langak-tso, in S. 20° W.; Resang, a southern valley opening out into
this plain.

From the culmination point a little valley takes us down to the eastern shore
of Langak-tso, where we cross a series of very well developed and perfectly un-
mistakable beach lines and walls parallel with the present shoreline. The edge of
the highest wall or terrace was now 281 m. from the shore, and 20.7 m. above the
surface of the lake.

The way back over the neck to Camp 214 crosses a low threshold, only 58 m.
over Manasarovar, this probably being the lowest point on the neck, except the
channel. On the eastern side of the little pass is a curious depression between the
hills, which has once been a bay of the Manasarovar, but is now filled with a sterile
swamp on clay ground impregnated with salt. In its middle are open pools of salt