Southern Tibet : vol.3 / 31 ページ（カラー画像）

0031	Southern Tibet : vol.3
南チベット : vol.3

that he knows two different roads from Lhasa to Sining, although, of course, he is
partly wrong in what he says of the population. If his notice of these roads were
more detailed, it would enable us to identify the most interesting section of Grueber's
and Dorville's route. For Desideri says: »da Lhasà, capitale del principal Thibet,
fino a Sinim o sia Si lingh, dove finisce questo Thibet e comincia la Cina, andando
per luoghi popolati, è di quattro mesi. E infatti molto mercanti, per far meglio il
viaggio, in luogo di andare per luoghi popolati, vanno per l'altro deserto di tre
mesi, che da Lhasà conduce a Silingh. Di tal secondo deserto di tre mesi, e del
viaggio fatto in esso da due padri della Compagnia di Gesù, ne fa menzione il P.
Atanasio Kircher nella sua Cina illustrata.» This points to the eastern road, and as
Grueber himself does not mention the mountains he had to traverse, one could not
expect that Desideri should do so. He only says that one can ride on horse-back
the whole way.

Giving the boundaries of Tibet he says: ¹ »a Nord-est e a est confina con la
Cina, e con la Bassa Tartaria. A settentrione confina con luoghi aspri e deserti
che sono il cammino che conduce all'alta Tartaria indipendente, e al regno di
Yarkand.» This is perfectly true, and in the hard and desolate places he talks of,
there are the great mountain ranges, one of which is Transhimalaya.

Again, having said that Jegaçé is the capital of the Kingdom of Zang, he
continues: »L'altro regno si chiamava Uù, la cui città principale era Lhasa, e com-
prendeva le provincie poste nel mezzo di questo Thibet. Un altro regno si chiamava
Hor; comprendeva alcune provincie situate a nord, e il deserto di nord-est, che e
cammino per andare alla Cina.»

So late as in 1879 when the second edition of Markham's book was published,
we find, on Saunders' map, accompanying it, in the very heart of Tibet, and just
north of Nain Sing's route from Leh to Lhasa, the words: Hor Pa, Turkish Tribes.
Nay, even on the very last edition of the Royal Geographical Society's map of
Tibet, we read, north of Tong-tso and Tashi-bup-tso: Hor Province, — a mon-
strosity that ought to disappear from all maps. When Desideri talks of Hor he
does not know that it is practically the same as the »independent High Tartaria».
For the Tibetans call the Turks Hor or Horpa and the Mongolians Sok or Sokpa.
There are no Turks until you come to the northern side of the Kwen-lun-mountains.
But in spite of almost all modern maps, there is not a single Turk in the heart of
the Tibetan plateau-land. And there is nobody else either, for the part of Tibet
which is generally called Hor on our maps is not inhabited. To Desideri Hor was a
kingdom including some provinces situated in the north. But we know better nowadays.

In the following extremely interesting passage he returns to the countries
north of Tibet proper and shows how clear his idea was of the general extension
and situation of Tibet: ²

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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

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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