Southern Tibet : vol.3 / 59 ページ（カラー画像）

0059	Southern Tibet : vol.3
南チベット : vol.3

In Tibet these three chains are comparatively regular but further east they
disappear altogether, or rather join into an immense knot of mountains, just as in
the west of Tibet. Klaproth complains that the missionaries in their works on China
have completely omitted to pay any attention at all to the physical geography. The
Chinese are nothing less than geologists. They have no general names for the
mountain ranges in their country. Every mount is particularly designated in relation
to its form, its height, its situation or other remarkable circumstances. Klaproth
therefore finds it very difficult to follow on the maps the stretching and direction
of the principal chains. The single basis he has been able to use is the indication
of the height and the eternal snow of different mounts, and, combining this material,
he is able to draw the chains on his map. This method must of course lead to very
uncertain results, still, the summary given above shows that Klaproth worked in the
right direction and that he had reached a long way beyond d'Anville. In fact he
inaugurated a new era in European conception of Tibetan orography.

Klaproth's second range which he makes start from the Kailas, is situated
south of the Tsangpo, and therefore to a certain extent, and especially in
its central part identical with Colonel Burrard's Ladak Range, and with Reclus'
Transhimalaya.

The third chain in Klaproth's system is of the greatest interest to us. Here
for the first time, an attempt is made to join all the different ranges of d'Anville
north of the Tsangpo into one mountain system, which partly corresponds to Bur-
rard's Kailas Range. Klaproth does not hesitate to call this chain the eastern pro-
longation of the Kara-korum, a view which, later on, was adopted by one or two
geographers. With the limited material that was at his disposition, it is wonderful
that Klaproth could reach so far in the right direction, for, though this problem is
not yet definitely settled, Klaproth was very likely right. Further east the third chain
is the southern boundary of the Mongol nomads, a view that is nearly correct and
which in later years was adopted by Humboldt, Ritter, and Brian Hodgson. A part
of the chain is supposed to surround the lakes from which the Targo-tsangpo comes,
a view that is wrong in so far that the Targo-tsangpo in the sense of d'Anville and
Klaproth does not exist. But regarding the situation this hypothetical river occupies
on d'Anville's and Klaproth's maps, we can easily understand the conclusion of the
latter. The continuation of the chain is very well placed, namely along the south-
ern shore of Tengri-nor where it rises into the high glacier massive of Nien-chen-
tang-la. In Sam tan gandza the chain finally comes to an end.

In the Wei-Tsang-t'u-chih or Notice on the Provinces Wei and Tsang,
published by Klaproth,¹ we read a very interesting description of North and
East Tibet:

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

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

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

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

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