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

tang. The view to the north is hidden by a comparatively high range on the right
side of the Naong-tsangpo.

South of the 5 484 m high threshold there is a very deep-cut valley called
Sangra-palhé; a whole series of deep ravines go down to it from the Sela ridge.
A rock near the threshold is called Sereding and consists of quartzporphyrite. Be-
tween it and the principal pass is a conical rock called Serpo-tsungé, which stands
as a boundary pillar between Chang-tang and Pod. The ordinary road follows the
Sangra-palhé valley in summer; but as the bottom of the valley is filled with ice in
winter, the Sela road is taken at that season.

West of Sela-la there is a very considerable range called Pabla, running towards
W.S.W. This is the continuation of the Kyar, and perhaps of the Nien-chen-tang-la.
The nearest part of the Pabla is called Sangra, a massive which gives rise to the
Sangra-palhé. This part of the Pabla is very irregular and consists of several
groups, separated from each other by deep valleys. Two such groups, west of
Sela-la and Sangra, are called Torma-karu and Bupchung-ri; there is also a Bup-
chen-ri. Some of these mountains should perhaps rather be regarded as ramifications
from the Pabla crest. On the way up from Camp 114 to near Sela-la one has the
Pabla with its wild rugged forms all the way on the right hand. The range is
broad, compact and irregular and has only small snow-covered summits, no consider-
able peaks. The name Pabla seems to be bounded on the section of the range
which lies between my first and second lines of crossing.

East and west of Camp 116 several tributaries to the Naong-tsangpo go north-
wards and between them are rounded hills crossed by the road. They are passed
in small secondary passes, two of which, a little to the west of Camp 116 are resp.
5 399 and 5 199 m high. As a rule they are marked with cairns and mani-flags.
Camp 115 has a height of 5 134 m and is situated in the Naong-rung or valley of
Naong-tsangpo. The prevailing rock is diabas-porphyrite.

With our present knowledge it is impossible to form any clear idea about the
orographical arrangement between Naong-tsangpo and Bara-tsangpo. There must of
course be a water-parting between them, perhaps a meridional ramification from the Pabla.
But remembering the general tendency of parallelism I regard it more likely that there
is a west-east running range, or perhaps two, south of Ngangtse-tso and Kyaring-tso.

Continuing to the W.N.W. from Camp 115 the road follows the valley of
Naong-tsangpo, which is well marked between rounded hills where only occasionally
hard rock, quartz-porphyry, crops out. Sometimes the valley opens out to a little
plain with grass and swamps. The ground is very uneven on account of the bind-
ing power of the grass-roots and the washing action of the water; otherwise the
ground is gravelly. All the tributary valleys contain small, frozen brooks. One of
them, from the left, is called Keang, two from the right side Kamchen and Kam-
chung; in the background of Keang three comparatively high peaks of the Pabla
are visible with some snow. Nangba is a valley from the S.W. or left side.