Southern Tibet : vol.7 / 189 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0189	Southern Tibet : vol.7
南チベット : vol.7

0189

Southern Tibet : vol.7

南チベット : vol.7

123

The names Mandalik and Kotak lak (Köteklik) are still in use. »This is one
of the feeders of the Shayuk, which river here loses this appellation, and is called
the River of Khamdán,» — in which we recognize Kumdan. Then follows Chong
Tash and he observes an opening to the left, »turning towards the south, passing
through which a mountain is crossed. They call that road of Sisar.» VIGNE,
proceeding to the head of the Nubra valley, later on mentions the Saser route,
confirming MIR IZZET ULLAH.

What he says of Khamdán (Kumdan) is of interest. His station was on the
river, so that the glacier seems to have been unusually far back. »On our left hand
between the south and west is a mountain of ice, which remains unmelted throughout
the year. They say it is two hundred cos in extent, and on one side is Tibet Balti,
and on the other Serkul, on the boundaries of Badakhshan. From Kashmir to Yarkand,
through Balti, it is a journey of twenty-five days, three of which are over this
glacier, and it is, therefore, rarely travelled. There is said to be also a shorter
road, avoiding the icy mountain, but the people of Tibet keep it a secret. Large
blocks of ice, some of a spiral form, were lying about the station: perhaps the place
derives its name from this, Kham, a spire or curl. They say that this ice shifts,
for the people of the country observe that a particular stone, which at one season is
on the side, is after some time observable at the summit of the mountain. Moreover
the water which bubbles at the lower part having become ice, pushes up and takes the
place of the ice above it. In some places the colour of the glacier is white, in some
it is of the colour of jasper (jade), in some like water, and others like the sky.»

ELPHINSTONE notices that Mir Izzet Ullah regards the Khamdán as a separate
mountain of ice, and Wilson infers »that the glacier here met with, is in fact part
of the Mustak range». None of them had visited the place.¹

The way to Yápchan goes »on both sides the river; the road was irregular,
and the snow lay a foot and a half thick».

So much seems clear from Mir Izzet Ullah's description, that he did not at all
come in contact with the ice. But as the road was on both sides of the river it
seems to have been cut in some places by the projecting snouts of the Kumdan
Glaciers. If he had touched the ice anywhere he should have mentioned the ice
instead of the snow. At any rate the Kichik Kumdan stood at his visit, in 1812,
farther back than I found it 90 years later or in 1902.

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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