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

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Animal life is not rich along this road with its traffic. Ducks, geese,
pigeons, partridges, eagles, vultures and a good many small birds are seen; the
kyangs and Pantholops antelopes appeared only north of the continental water-
parting; wild yaks were said never to be seen along this road.

The flora is high-alpine on both sides of the crest; at some places in the
Mü-chu valley and along the lower course of the Targo-tsangpo there is some bush-
vegetation. Near Govo the junipers are as big as small trees and much more common
than lower down. On the Chang-tang plains one hardly sees anything else than
scanty grass.

The population as all over Tibet is scanty, but the Mü-chu valley is the best
populated of all the Transhimalayan valleys I have seen. The Shang-chu and Ki-chu
valleys certainly have a much more numerous population. Several ruins in the lower
part of the Mü-chu valley give the impression of a greater population in olden times.
The first is seen on the little ridge Chikchung-chang near Chaga, which may have been
a fort. Going up the Dok-chu and Mü-chu, the road passes a good many villages,
all of them very small and consisting of a few stone huts. Kao is the first, a little
west of Chaga. Changra has only 2 or 3 huts and is situated in the mouth of a
northern tributary of the Dok-chu. Tangna has 10 huts. Labrang is a house of
some religious or administrative importance, and Jo a village, both near Tangna.
Samde-dupta is a small monastery in the Dupta valley. Going from south to north
we find: Cho-gora, Tashi-gang with only one hut, Mondho, Sanga, Kachen, Sangdo,
Machung. Se-nakpo, Saukpa, Gunsa-gompa, a small nunnery, Chamda and Tanglo;
mani walls and prayer cairns are very common. At Chagri-gapo there are beautiful
Buddha sculptures on a granite rock. Then follow Doglo and Lingö. Some of
the inhabitants of Lingö go in summer northwards with their flocks 6 or 7 days to
Targo-largäp; thus even here the agriculture is insufficient, and the natives semi-
nomads. But agriculture is carried on the whole way up to Govo. The next village
is Sankar-sumdo; at Chisu some mills are worked in irrigation channels. Kaupeva;
Gunda-tamo is a nunnery near the Kabu valley, and Do a village in the Taka
valley. At Tong there is a good deal of cultivation; Tong-lova-gensang and Tene
are villages of Tong, and Lung-gandän-gompa its monastery. Tong has 25 families,
cultivating barley and peas and some wheat; to the district of Tong belong the
following villages: Kabu with 7 families, Do with 3, Kanin with 6, Tina with 3, Tso
with 15 and Hlalung with 3 families. Dupta is a nunnery, Lingbo a village near
Ghe. The village of Ghe has 18 houses and cultivates barley, peas and some
wheat. Tangma is the next. All these villages are situated in the mouths of side-
valleys, the brooks of which irrigate their fields. Then comes Sanak, and higher up
in its valley, Sanak-pu. Chenda is in the Chepu valley, in the upper part of which
there are some tents. The village of Shavo or Shao was now uninhabited. At Dera,
some cultivation; a party of merchants had pitched their black tents here for a few
days. At Kampa in the Dera valley some poplar trees still thrive. Ship, Tinga and