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

Those who have travelled in the Tsangpo valley, — and they are very few,
will understand why the Pundit could not tell much of the general aspect of the
country from his road. For hundreds of miles we find the valley, sometimes deep
and narrow, sometimes broad and open, and there are more or less steep mountain-
shoulders on both sides. They will understand that nothing very high could be seen
to the north of the road from the Manasarovar to Tradum, although here are even
passes crossed by roads, with a height of 5 885 m. (19 303 feet), as Ding-la. For
the next 70 miles, or to beyond Saka-dsong the mountains were still lower, although
here due north are situated the mighty rocky peaks Lunpo-gangri and Kanchung-
gangri, not to mention the Lunkar and Lapchung still farther north. Farther east,
and north of Raga-tsangpo, a very high snowy range was visible to the north.
I have only seen its western part, the Kanchung-gangri. Curious enough Mont-
gomerie has only entered on the map a small section of its eastern part. So much
is at any rate sure that, from Nain Sing's route, absolutely nothing is visible of the
principal range of Transhimalaya, the range in which Angden-la, Sha-la and Chang-la-
Pod-la are situated. South of this range I have, on my preliminary map, entered
two parallel ranges, which are only conjectural. Between my two routes in this
region, the country south of Sha-la is still unknown. Discoveries to be made here
in future may show that there is only one range, or that the intermediate space is
perhaps filled up simply by ramifications from the principal range. From Ryder's
map it seems, however, likely that there are really two ranges, the southernmost
very near to and parallel with the Raga-tsangpo. On this Ryder and Wood have
a peak of 20 000 feet. This, no doubt, belongs to the range mentioned by Nain Sing.
The capital view Nain Sing got from Kamba-la is surprising. If it was a
»capital view» and a »clear view» the weather must have been clear. And still to
the north he saw only comparatively low mountains in no way remarkable. And this
is the very place where della Penna and Beligatti saw »a certain new series of high
snowy mountains to the north». The contradiction can be explained only supposing
the northern horison was cloudy on the occasion of the Pundit's visit, for other-
wise he would have seen the Nien-chen-tang-la.
Montgomerie was an experienced and very clever surveyor in the field. He
knew the laws of perspective sufficiently intimately to understand that the Pundit
from his road in the valley could not possibly see anything but the nearest moun-
tains. Therefore he concludes: »As a rule, the Pundit's view from the road does
not seem to have been very extensive, for although the mountains on either side
were comparatively low, they generally hid the distant ranges.» ¹ This is indeed
the case. At the distance of some 400 miles from Shigatse to Maryum-la, on the
map of Nain Sing, only 85 miles are occupied by ranges north of the Tsangpo.
A journey in the valleys of the Tsangpo and Raga-tsangpo gives a very unsufficient
idea of the mountains to the north. One has to cross them in order to understand