Southern Tibet : vol.7 / 293 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0293	Southern Tibet : vol.7
南チベット : vol.7

the Shia persuasion. They speak a dialect of the Tibetan language, but have nothing of
the Tibetan literature. They keep some books or fragments in Persian. The correspon-
dence from Ladak with the chiefs of those parts, is carried on in Persian, as also with
Cashmir. The people of Beltistan are very unhappy on account of their chiefs having
continual quarrels with each other, or with the prince of Ladak. The climate is warm.
In the lower part of Beltistan, snow never falls. The soil is good. There are several sorts
of excellent fruits; as of apples, pears, peaches, plums, figs, grapes, mulberries etc. etc.
There is great want of salt and wool in those parts. Formerly there existed a commercial
route of 30 days' journey from Cashmir to Yarkand through Beltistan, but that country
being in an unsettled state, the Cashmirian merchants afterwards preferred that through
Lé in Ladak, although it is very circuitous.

This description from native sources is interesting as it dates from a period
only a few years before the occupation of Ladak by Gulab Sing's general Zorawar,
which took place in 1834—1840, whilst the conquest of Baltistan followed in 1841.
The old trade road across the Kara-korum and Baltistan is also mentioned. It was
abandoned on account of raids of robbing bands, not on account of ice and snow.
Therefore, the safer road of the Kara-korum Pass was chosen by the merchants
between Kashmir and Yarkand. In connection with these roads one would have
expected to find a few words of the great Kara-korum glaciers, but there is nothing
about them. Nor are they mentioned under the heading Glaciers: »The summits of
many of the Tibetan mountains remain through the whole year covered with snow.
But there are especially four glaciers or mountains covered with ice or frozen snow;
as Tisé, Havo, Shampo, and Pulé.»

Gold and other metals as well as fossils are mentioned as follows:

Mines. — Mines are rarely excavated in Tibet. In the northern part of Nari, and
in Gugé, some gold dust is gathered, as also in Zanskar and Beltistan it is washed from
the rivers. If they knew how to work mines, they might find in many places gold, copper,
iron and lead.

Petrifactions are found at many places in Tibet, especially in Naru. On the 2d and
3d range of the Himalaya mountains, there are several sorts of them. Salgrams and shells
are found most frequently, in many places. All such petrifactions are denominated in
Tibetan, according to the resemblance they have to things; as sheep-eye, sheep-horn,
sheep-brain, swine-brain, swine-head, bird-leg, cow-tongue, stone-trumpet etc. They are
not objects of reverence in Tibet, neither of curiosity. Some of them, after being burnt
and reduced to powder, are used as medicaments in certain diseases.

The following distinction between the highland deserts and the cultivable ground
is good:

In middle Tibet and Ladak the mountains are in general naked, destitute of herb,
grass and every vegetable. In the valleys, where the fields can be watered or irrigated,
several kinds of corn are produced, especially wheat, barley, buckwheat, millet, pease, and
some others. In Nari and in the northern deserts of Tibet, there grow several kinds of
medical herbs and plants, and there are likewise good pastures; but there are in the de-
serts no fields for producing corn, and what they want they purchase from those who
24. VII.

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